McIntosh Marketing Blog

One of the world’s largest blog sites, Mashable, is hosting the first-ever worldwide Social Media Day celebration on June 30.

Per Mashable, this is “A global celebration of the revolution of media becoming social.” Followers have so far responded enthusiastically by signing up to organize or attend more than 335 meetups in over 73 countries. Mashable has launched Smday.com to help organize and channel interest and followers to meetups in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin. (other cities may be added).

And even Orange County, CA will have its own Social Media Day event in Santa Ana at The Orange County Register.

For those who cannot make anyone of those meetings, you’re not completely out of luck. You are in for quite a treat as there will be additional impressive meetups scheduled from Spain to Australia. In Los Angeles, for example, the organizers are using the day to benefit a good cause, with all the proceeds from the night’s festivities going to the local Hollywood Arts, an arts academy for homeless and foster care.

Jed Singer, the organizer of the Social Media Day celebration in Philadelphia, told Mashable that he decided to participate because social media has changed people’s lives, and because it simply is worth celebrating.

“I just love how social media tethers everyone together, and brings people closer in the real world. It’s amazing how far we’ve come from forums and message boards, to blogging, uploading video, microblogging, geolocating,” he said. “The fact that anyone can instantly publish anything to the web has really changed the world.”

Google has just made their very awesome Google Voice service available to the public.  As a business owner and online marketer you have got to take advantage of this great service.

Here are some of the great benefits of Google Voice:

1. It’s Free! You’ve got to Love free!

2. Personalize Your Greetings. With Google Voice you can set up unique and personal greetings for different individuals. Want to give your A-list clients very unique greetings? You can do that. Want to deliver specific no holds barred greetings to telemarketers? Well… there you go !

3. Google Voice allows you to be local. The world of online marketing is going Local, Mobile and Social as we like to say.  You have a choice of choosing a number with any area code you want.

This is a huge benefit to a local business. Lets say you are in Orange County Ca. You have a Construction company and you want business from the Los Angeles area. You can choose a phone number with a 213, 310 or any of the other area codes assigned to the LA area. You can then use that number in your online marketing and your advertising pieces and you will get much more business from LA area residents.

4. Never Miss An Important Call Again! With Google Voice you can set up your service to route that very important call to ring at any phone you want whenever you want.

We have been piloting Google Voice for quite a while now with fantastic results. It is definitely a service you should use.

Success in business is all about professional use of your lines of communication. Google Voice will help you streamline your business communication lines and make them much more effective and…PROFITABLE.

Here is a link where you can check out Google Voice:

http://bit.ly/du2qGL

Give it a try !

Article by Carlos Gamez

Image by Nicholas Smale

According to the Wall Street journal, Google is getting ready to offer its own music service.  The search giant will provide two services, one offering music downloads while the other will provide subscription-based streaming. Such a move will place Google as a direct competitor of Apple’s Itunes and Amazon’s MP3 service.

While some might complain that Google is once again increasing its influence, this is good news for a struggling music industry which was complaining about Itunes’ monopoly-like position. This should also make fans of the now defunct music site Lala happy as Apple shut down the popular service a month ago. The buzz being that Apple closed Lala to launch a similar platform on itunes.com, music fans should soon be able to have access to various music sources, which should result in the price per song and album going down.

But there is more at stakes as this music war reaches far beyond the world wide web since it will also be a way to increase the market share of Google’s android platform vs Apple’s Iphones:  the new Google music services will of course work in sync with Google’s android phones, thus attacking aggressively the Iphone market.

LinkedIn is the largest and fastest growing business networking sites for all types of business professionals, which provides your company with an amazing opportunity for small business marketing. In the next coming weeks, we will be featuring many more posts about LinkedIn and how to utilize it fully as a powerful way to connect with other B2B professionals and to catapult your brand building strategy into action with positive ROI.

But beyond LinkedIn, there are many other B2B networking sites that may not be as famous, but nonetheless offer opportunities for small businesses to reach out and effectively market their products or services. Here’s a sampling:

Biznik – Entrepreneurs and small businesses networking to assist each other to prosper.

Cofoundr – A networking group emphasizing starting new ventures.

E.Factor – An online network & virtual marketplace designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.

Ecademy –A B2b network for generating contacts and distributing know-how and experience.

Entrepreneur Connect – A network established by Entrepreneur.com where professionals can network, communicate, and collaborate with others.

Fast Pitch – A business network where professionals can market their business and make connections.

Focus – A network collaborating business decision makers and IT professionals to generate better ideas and decisions.

JASEzone – A professional business community where you can develop potential clients and business partners.

Networking for Professionals – A business network that combines online business networking and real-life events.

PartnerUp – A community connecting small business owners and entrepreneurs.

PerfectBusiness – A network of entrepreneurs, investors and business experts that encourages entrepreneurship and mutual success.

Ryze – A business networking community that allows users to organize themselves by interests, location, and current and past employers.

StartupNation – A community focused on the exchange of ideas between entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners.

Upspring – A social networking site for promotion and social networking.

XING – A European business network with more than 7 million members.

Over the last few years I have been asked for my marketing glossary several times.  Truth is, I don’t really have one.  I do have notes with definitions here and there but have never actually put them all in one place.  In fact, when I try to explain these marketing terms to someone, it seems to me that most of the time they think these terms don’t really exist!  It could be due to many of them sounding very similar to each other but trust me they have very different meanings.  I really felt the following keywords should be listed as they tend to be used most often and more commonly but for the full list with detailed definitions go to http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/

deep linking – linking to a web page other than a site’s home page.

description tag – an HTML tag used by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.

impression – a single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.*

interactive agency – an agency offering a mix of Web design/development, Internet advertising/marketing, or E-Business/E-Commerce consulting.

keyword research – the search for keywords related to your Web site, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).

search engine optimization – the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.

By taking the time to learn these terms you will not only become more knowledgeable of Internet marketing but just by reading them you will start to understand more and more of what actually goes into your marketing.  I feel this list is pretty thorough list and can help even the beginning marketer to understand the terms of the online marketing world better.  Not only will you be able to learn more about the terms but once you start to understand them you will learn more about how marketing is actually done!

This is an advertising method where an advertiser pays a certain amount of money every time someone clicks on one of their ads, and therefore is taken to their website.  This method was popularized by Google’s “Adwords” program.  And while there are many other PPC programs available, Adwords is still the largest, most popular and most effective.

The way Adwords works is, you bid on certain keywords related to your website or business.  You say, “I am willing to pay this much money every time someone clicks on my ad”.  That amount varies dramatically based on your market and competition. It can be as little as 1 cent, or as much as 40 dollars or more.  Then, when someone searches for any of the keywords you have bid on, Google does a mini auction, determining who’s ad will show in what position.  The main things they look at when they do this auction is the keyword’s relevance to your website, the quality of your website itself, the quality and performance of your ad, and of course, your bid price.  Once the auction is completed, Google then assigns the different ads to the different positions and displays them.  Here’s the important thing though, you don’t pay what you bid – you pay based on the people below you’s bid.  Because of these other factors, like the quality of your website, past performance and keyword relevance, you can actually be paying much less than the people below you and show up higher than them!

Not all PPC programs work this way, but many of the most popular ones do.  There are many good reasons to not only use Google’s adwords, but use the other programs as well.  You can often get better traffic for less from these other programs.  But as far as sheer quantity, Adwords is the best.

If you operate a small biz, welcome to America’s club of almost 30 million strong.  You belong to an important component that not only drives our economy, but also develops the majority of our nation’s innovative ideas, according to SCORE’s Small Biz Stats & Trends web page.

For long-term survival, there are many components to success for any small business. But one that seems to still provides quite some overwhelm is judging how to enter the face-paced world of internet marketing and social media. While many small businesses know that building brand awareness is crucial, and that internet marketing tools and social media sites can provide a unique business opportunity, only a few daunting souls endeavor into it rapidly and successfully.

The question will eventually arise for each small biz owner: Should I outsource our marketing to a professional internet marketing agency, or should I learn this as best as I can, hoping that I make some headway?

These are important issues to resolve first, before decoding which path to take:

1. Who is the most important client that we want to reach and sell?

2. What are we willing to spend to gain that client, in relation to the postulated ROI on that relationship?

3. What are their buttons, their needs and desires and how does your product connect to that key button or need?

4. How would we best position our product or service as what resolves or satiate that need?

5. How do we best reach these people? This may have already been answered by your competitors.

6. Do I have the core knowledge and/or team members who do, to make progress with a comprehensive online marketing strategy?

You may already posses the skills and core SEO knowledge necessary to resolve those issues and to proceed forward without any assistance from an outside SEO agency. But when it comes to small business SEO, there are additional factors that have to be taken into consideration.

Finding a niche market is a highly touted strategy to build a core of dedicated fans, repeat business and excellent word of mouth. For example, there are many coffee houses that one can find one’s favorite brew. But I know one, The Lost Bean, that specializes in organically grown coffee. That’s all they serve and the place is packed with customers on a constant basis. One small difference in your small business brand can be a big difference in how your attract attention and build a dedicated base of loyal clients. In this example, those who support green living feel that their coffee habit is sustaining a better world.

I have provided a video by marketing guru, Seth Godin, to help illustrate the need to for effective online marketing for any small business.

Coupons directly to your phone?

Banner ads right on your screen?

Really?

It is reality. Mobile marketing is a quickly growing segment of the market and what’s more, is it is quickly becoming very acceptable by cell phone users.

I may be a dinosaur when it comes to modern technology but I remember a time when people in restaurants would get quite annoyed when another patron would use the cell phone at the table.

Ironically I was recently sitting with my family in a restaurant and during the course of the meal everyone in the party (5 of us)  received at least one  text or a phone call or sent a text, accessed the web or made a call.

I think we will all be born with cell phones attached to us in the near future!  We’ll be passing out cigars that say: ” It’s a Droid!”

What this means for marketers is:

Now that the cell phone, in all it’s uses, is commonly accepted wherever one is, reaching out to your potential customers is now limitless.

In the article “Connecting Mobile to the Marketing Mix” (http://bit.ly/cTFVes) author Lisa Arthur writes:
“Resistance to receiving promotions such as coupons and discounts on the mobile phone is eroding. About 45 percent of survey respondents, while not enthusiastic, would accept promotions if they had some control over the process. (More evidence that consumers are most open to messages that reflect their personal preferences and interests.) (Link this sentence to previous  post “A New E-mail Manifesto.”) By contrast, in the earlier survey, only about 36 percent said they would accept these types of mobile promotions.”

That means that in the very near future the great majority of cell phone users will be completely open to receiving your marketing message on their phones.

According to CTIA (http://bit.ly/FEyKl)   there were 285.6 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. alone as of December 2009.

The number of potential new customers for you are simply amazing.

And the ease with which Mobile Marketing can be used to reach these millions of potential customers is quite remarkable.

Ask yourself this : “Would exposure to 143,000,000 new potential customers help your business?
The world is going “mobile…and social” (a phrase I have shamelessly stolen from Bill McIntosh).

You need to be Mobile and Social as well !

Happy Marketing 🙂

Written by Carlos Gamez

Image by compujearamy

Increasing traffic to your personal or company blog is the main reason why you are engaging in blogging in the first place. Having studied a bit about this vital medium, all the while continuing to blog frequently, I have learned from others that there are six fundamentals of success for increasing blog traffic. I have kept the information on each point short, with a call-to-action to help you analyze and address each of these so you can evaluate and determine how you can elevate your blogger status. And more importantly, what you can do to increase traffic to your blog.

1. Include popular search terms in your blog titles and copy. This is the most fundamental of all SEO strategies. But are you using them naturally and with integrity?  What I mean is that you must stay true to your message and purpose. Write from your heart with the intent to delivery high-quality content that is meant to serve others and elevate the quality of their lives. You can tweak your blogs posts, and you must, to place within them key words and long tails. But do not tweak it so it loses its integrity. CALL-TO-ACTION: Evaluate yourself as a blogger and determine if your integrity has been your priority or if you have lost some of it due to trying to get keywords and long tails to fit in unnaturally.

2. Post at least twice a week, and try for three times. Once of the most frustrating experiences in blogging is not seeing immediate results or comments. You start to think that your posts are lost in the shuffle. It could be that you are not optimizing the content distribution network. If your network is place, then you have to stay consistent over a period of time. Over time, readers will notice and so will Google. CALL-TO-ACTION: Optimize your content distribution network and then blog consistently every week.

3. Talk about what is hot, what people are talking about and what they need, not what you just have to say. You know the guy or girl who does nothing but talk about themselves at the company gathering? Yea, they really are resented like you know what. People are searching for needs, desires and what they are curious about. All they want to hear is your spin, clarification, edification of insider’s view on the matter or product. CALL-TO-ACTION: Do some homework, some surveys or find bloggers who have the ears of many and find out why. Based on what you discover, talk about what people need. Also be sure to ask for dialogue.

4. Blog intelligently about your topic. Be coherent, relevant and add some appeal. We really do not want to hear about your girlfriend or why you like Thai food. (Unless your blog is specifically about those subjects). Stay on the topic is tough for some bloggers. Blog about one thing and blog on it well, providing as much insight as possible. Add statistics, reviews or insight from leaders in the field. CALL-TO-ACTION: Review your last five blog posts and see how you could elevate them by making them more to the point, as well as substantiating themselves with relevant and important facts, stats and/or industry reviews.

5. Demonstrate leadership. Leaders not only educate, but ask and even demand that people perform to the best of their abilities. Leaders indicate direction, instill confidence and lead by example. Much has been written on leadership, but it is key that each of your blogs postings direct people towards positive actions or goals. It may be as simple on what to order and what not to order at a restaurant that you are reviewing. CALL-TO-ACTION:  Give positive direction in each blog posting.

6. Commit yourself to staying educated concerning online blogging. You must become a true and dedicated student to be able to reach the level of teacher where others will want to follow you. There is no mistaking competence when you see it, read it in a blog or watch it performed in an athlete. CALL-TO-ACTION: Read at least one book per month on blogging and online marketing tools. Additionally, follow at least 5 SEO companies that have great advice on blogging. And read Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples at least 3 times in your lifetime.

Your blogging will become your voice and a way to connect to the world. Good luck and I loo forward to how this blog post may have helped you.

Blogging can not only be rewarding for your business and SEO ranking purposes, but it can also provide a creative release. A literary catharsis if you will for all that you are passionate about. Ultimately, any blogger has to eat and provide value for the business that employs him or her. To survive and thrive as a business blogger, depending on a sales rep salary would establish a new set of circumstances. It would develop effective blogging faster and better than any other process I know.

I believe that to be a blogger that makes a significant difference, at least for your employment purposes, is that you have to posses the ability to generate online conversions into profits. You have to know how to sell and that means closing deals, getting the person to sign the contract with money in hand. Any blogger who has the reality of having to close a deal will blog better, with more convincing copy. Otherwise, a blogger’s posts will be laden with ivory tower theories of how it should be.

Here is my blogging tip for the day: If you have not lived and breathed in the trenches of sales, having to get a person to commit to a program or close a deal, than you should get a part-time job in sales. You will find that if you learn how to connect with people in person, to such a degree that they start giving you money, that it will transform how you blog. You will see your writing take on a whole new level of reality that makes people take action.

When it comes down to it, what really determines whether or not you have found the right “hot buttons” that make a person motivated enough to make the purchase, is experience. You cannot substitute having been on the front lines, taken a few shots and seen the heat of battle in business.