McIntosh Marketing Blog

When an OC small business breaks the list of top 500 e-commerce websites, it causes one to pause as to what generated their success. Such was the case with local small business, Air & Water, Inc. in Santa Ana, CA. Taken from their website, this says so much:

“Founded in 2002, Air & Water has quickly grown to become one of the internet’s largest independent appliance retailers. Since the inception of the company, we’ve helped tens of thousands of customers all across the country with their heating and cooling needs.  In addition to our website, we also operate storefronts on online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.  Air & Water, Inc. is also recognized as a trusted online retailer by some of the web’s biggest online shopping compare sites such as Bizrate, Shopping, and NexTag.”

Air & Water Inc. has developed a strong and savvy web presence from conducting some very consistent and SEO, customer-friendly tactics that has contributed to their success:

• They continue to write great content in the form of articles, which differentiates them from their competition.
• Developing niche markets with a broad offering of products and distribution channels.
• Carefully watching their traffic and developing content that will drive more hits and sales.

This bring-and-mortar business demonstrates that even during tough economic times, proactive, intelligent and effective web marketing can become the marketing strategy that develops more business and profits.

Story inspired by The Orange County Register.

Image courtesy of www.toputop.com

Original content is king. For most of you this is nothing new; not at all a revelation.

But what I see very little of is the interfacing of blogs with social media; namely with Facebook. This became very clear to me the other day when I ran into a friend and we were talking about mundane stuff and she said, “Hey, I loved your blog post on Facebook.”

Without having to mention anything, she took the effort to mention it. She never commented back which can make a blogger think that no one reads their material or posts. Not true, to my chagrin.

While others talk about their mafia wars, farms and puppies, you can easily and rapidly position yourself as a thought leader. I can think of no faster way to help reinvent your brand, or at least your position within your market. Start blogging, and if you are already, then take the time to post these on Facebook.

Listening to the radio can sometimes pay off.

In listening to the success of Lisa, who started Hungry Girl, I was delightfully surprised to hear a key to her success; something we constantly preach at McIntosh Marketing: Original Content. While Lisa has a great idea, a wonderful message and coveys it so wonderfully on her web site, http://www.hungry-girl.com, she gained that by being an active web marketer and blogger.

With her blogging and her e-mails, she stayed true to her cause by constantly adding original content. As she commented, if you continue to do that, people will eventually find you. And now her book is a New York Times bestseller.

Many people have a dream and just as many have a blog and a web site. But so few are actively adding original content. This is also something that David Meerman Scott cites as to anyone’s success in his best-selling book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

Success comes to those who do the right things on a consistent basis. When it comes to web marketing and blogging, original content is a vital action to sustain.