Timing seems to be everything these days. Just released on eMarketer.com was a report that indicated that with the economy the way it is, the best way small businesses are making do with less is to push their efforts online to make it last longer and have greater reach. And rather than simply blindly following the blind, these small businesses are choosing to be more selective in their online marketing programs, which is not surprising. According to the eMarketer study:

- 17% of those asked said they would increase online activities for greater impact with less budget risk.

- 15% said that they would change their marketing approach to be more focused and targeted.

- 11% would conduct segmentation research to better target.

- 9% would increase their lead generation activities & follow-up.

- 7% would do more with less budget.

- 4% would be more efficient, effective, and streamlined.

This study is really good news as businesses should not be spending their money on traditional means. Yes, we are in a recession and all budgets are tight so the goal is to maximize your reach while spending less but being effective. So let’s examine what possible roles the web can play for a small business.

Revisit your website. If you’re going to advertise your product to your customers, you obviously cannot put everything on the ad or list every other piece of information you want. You need to be clear and succinct in your messaging. Plus if you have multiple products, how exactly are you going to share them with your customers? Through a website, of course! During times of budgetary constraints, the best thing to do is to re-examine your website and make sure that it is optimized to achieve what you want. Graphic appeal is a big thing to get people to stay on your site, but perhaps most importantly is the functionality. If your intent is to have people come to your site and book a trip, buy your product, enter a sweepstake or to drop their name into your database so they can get more information about a certain topic or news, then you need to make sure that it functions how your customers want it to.

Don’t think that just because you have the functionality in place that it will work perfectly. Chances are it won’t. That’s what user testing is for. Yes, this type of additional testing is necessary but could exceed your budget. So rather than spending that money now (which I suggest would help in the long-run), you might consider crowdsourcing it – that is, have your customers offer you feedback and then you act on it. Don’t brush it off, but acknowledge the feedback and if it’s something plausible, then act. Otherwise, their feedback is pointless & you get negative credibility.

Integration of all your products, promotions, tools is highly critical. While I’m going to show you how to effectively incorporate the different web avenues like email marketing, social media, online advertising, etc, you’ll need to find a way to make it all have the end result of bringing people to your website and also pushing them to take advantage of these other tools.

Don’t be afraid to partner up with third-party vendors to make sure that your content is displayed how you want – it’s not necessarily an endorsement of their product, but it serves two purposes: you get the functionality that you want (whether it’s posting a presentation online in an interactive format or uploading a video of your product, etc.) and it’s also shareable, or viral. I’ll get more into that when we start talking about social media but you want to make sure that the information you share is portable. Remember, in this stage of the game, it’s not about emails and photos that can be spread faster than the speed of light. Practically anything you post online can be virally spread across the wonderful thing we’ve come to know as the World Wide Web.

Remember: everything comes back full circle to your website. Whether you’re promoting or communicating in social media, mobile, email, or through online banners & advertisements. In the end, your website will be the representative of your brand and company. Take pride in it. It will be your greatest asset to promote your products and increase your business.

NEXT TIME:

We’ll look at how targeted email marketing can be and how you can make the most out of the engagement. Email marketing is probably one of the most common form of communication these days and can have a lasting effect on your brand. Cheap to send, but important in making or breaking your budget. Don’t dismiss it. It can help generate big results and rewards for your bottom line.

Larry Bailin is the founder, CEO and thought leader of Single Throw, Inc. Larry is involved in the day to day sales and marketing activities as well as spearheading research and development of new Internet marketing services. Larry founded Single Throw Internet Marketing in Late 2000 and opened the doors of the company’s first office in Lakewood, New Jersey in early 2001.

Under his leadership Single Throw has grown to be the top Internet marketing company in New Jersey and one of the best Internet marketing companies in the nation. Single Throw has provided Internet marketing services to some of the top companies in the world.

Larry is the best selling author of the marketing book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” and is a renowned professional keynote and conference speaker, speaking 30 times per year to organizations across the country. I recently had the opportunity sit down with him and talk about the Internet Marketing landscape. Here is the transcript of part two of a two part interview:

Steve: One question I get from people thinking about starting an online business is “do I need an Internet marketing plan”? What is your philosophy on this type of thing?
Larry: That’s an easy one. 100% yes. A plan is crucial. You would not build a bird-house without a plan why would you not take the time to create one for your business? The Internet is now and will continue to play a critical role in every company’s ability to attract qualified customers. There are few companies out there that are not adding Internet marketing to their overall marketing strategy. You leave it out and you get left behind. We live in a clickable culture and to ignore that fact would be foolish.

Steve: As a follow up question, what are the typical types of Internet marketing services involved in an Internet marketing plan?
Larry: That would vary depending on the type of business and where potential customers can be found for your offerings. Some people would have you believe if it exists than you need to do it. I could not disagree more. I only want to be where my customers are. If my potential customers are on Facebook I’ll be there. If I cannot identify that there is opportunity for me on MySpace than I will move on. You need to investigate everything and only take on the solutions that have the opportunity for return. Take note, I said opportunity for return not guaranteed return. If you’re looking for guarantees buy a car.

The one constant that every marketing plan should have is a focus on the website. A company’s website is the center of their marketing universe. Everything points to your website, social networking, blogs. Brochures, whitepapers, email everything. Even handing someone a business card leads to them saying, “I’ll go check out your website”.

Just having a website is not enough. You need to be 100% convinced that it will attract, connect with and convert potential customers. We have taken good websites and made them great by insuring that nothing is left up to chance. Every element, line of text, hyperlink and image exists for one reason, to persuade a potential customer.

If your marketing plan does not contain a hard focus on creating a customer centric website you are short changing every other marketing solution you put forth.

Steve: Since you are both product and service-focused clients, are they different in any way? What are some distinctions in how you focus their Internet marketing strategies?
Larry: Primarily product and service companies are different only in their sales processes and by that I mean the last part of a sale. Product sales are more transaction oriented. Services are more relationship oriented and utilize a consultative selling model.

Contrary to popular belief there is little difference between the two when it comes to Internet marketing. The reason for this is that the customer is the same. Buying behavior is very similar from product to service. I rarely change my buying habits based on what I’m buying. I still need to know I’m making the right choice which means you have to inspire confidence in your potential clients. We have to instill trust, professionalism and expertise. All three of these qualities are vital for both products and services.

Both types of sales end with a success transaction. The product sales ends much sooner as the success transaction is the purchase / ordering of said product. Service transaction success online is a different success transaction, typically a contact choice. At the point of contact the sales process for a service continues off-line.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a “Top 5” from both of you. Since we are facing some tough economic times ahead for possibly the next 12-18 months, what are the Top 5 things you would recommend to companies to leverage their Internet marketing strategy?
Larry: I recently spoke at an Affiliate Summit event in NYC. After the event I followed the chatter about my presentation online via blog’s, twitter, forums and across multiple social networks. My favorite quote was, “Larry Bailin is a brilliant non-traditional e-marketer”. That being said I’m going to apologize in advance because my top 5 are not the average picks I see others pushing such as, video, twitter, Facebook and alike.

1. Strive to put the marketing back into Internet marketing. I’ve watched e-business evolve into business and now I watch as Internet marketing evolves into marketing. Internet marketing is not a technology solution. The technology has become ubiquitous. True results will come from the connection your solutions make with potential customer. Making a connection is a core fundamental in order for any marketing to succeed.

2. When hiring any Internet marketing company you must be sure they do not build anything for you. You are not hiring them to build things to make you happy; you need them to make your customers happy. My company strives to look though our customers. Everything we build or develop is designed for our customers customers.

When an Internet marketing company can build solution that makes your customers happy, trust me, you’ll be happy.

3. Measure, modify, test, measure and repeat. Just because your solutions are producing does not mean they cannot be better, in fact I guarantee they can be better. There is no such thing as perfect. Even our country’s constitution alludes to a grammatical fallacy, “a more perfect union”. There is no such thing as, “more perfect” but the concept is sound, never settle for perfect.

Always measure, modify, test and measure again. Push your solutions to the limit. Now more than ever you need to insure you’re getting the most from your budget, nothing is ever perfect.

4. Step outside of your comfort zone. I did a podcast with eight (8) time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman a couple of years ago. Ronnie is considered one of the best in the sport. He has won eight (8) consecutive Mr. Olympia titles in a row and is tied with Lee Haney for the most wins ever. No one has ever won nine (9) titles (consecutive or otherwise). When Ronnie went for his world record ninth win he lost to Jay Cutler.

When interviewed in my studio he was asked if he was going to retire. He answered, “no way! I’m going back to win number nine”. When asked if it was possible to be bigger and better than he currently was, without missing a beat he stated, “absolutely! I just can’t keep doing the same things that got me here and expect to grow. I have to add more weight to the bar”. As marketers we have to develop what I now affectionately call, “Marketing Muscle” and like Ronnie Coleman, add more weight to the bar.

5. Make time before all you have is time. More often than I care to hear I’m told by my customers that they do not have the time needed to do everything I recommend. My answer is always the same, “You need to make time before all you have is time. If your competitors find the time they will take your customers and then you will have more time”.

Larry Bailin is the founder, CEO and thought leader of Single Throw, Inc. Larry is involved in the day to day sales and marketing activities as well as spearheading research and development of new Internet marketing services. Larry founded Single Throw Internet Marketing in Late 2000 and opened the doors of the company’s first office in Lakewood, New Jersey in early 2001.

Under his leadership Single Throw has grown to be the top Internet marketing companies in New Jersey and one of the best Internet marketing companies in the nation. Single Throw has provided Internet marketing services to some of the top companies in the world.

Larry is the best selling author of the marketing book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” and is a renowned professional keynote and conference speaker, speaking 30 times per year to organizations across the country. I recently had the opportunity sit down with him and talk about the Internet Marketing landscape. Here is the transcript of part one of a two part interview:

Steve: Your firm has been doing a lot of pioneering things in the Internet marketing space. Could you tell us your vision and mission for Single Throw?
Larry: I’ve never been a big proponent of corporate visions and missions. In my experience they are written for the corporation and not the customer. Missions seldom seem to be followed and end up being a valueless proposition that no one believes or adheres to.
If I had to pin just one philosophy to my company, I guess it would be to never take on a client we cannot help and never sell a solution where we profit more than the client.
I’m sorry for the limited answer but my company’s vision is ever-changing and always evolving so I guess my mission is to always improve my vision.

Steve: What are the Internet marketing services you provide customers?
Larry: We have quite a wide breadth of services we offer. Primarily any type of marketing that uses the Internet to help our clients connect with a customer we handle. We do everything from customer centric website development, conversion enhancement, application development, search engine optimization, social media / networking campaign development etc.

What we won’t do is anything we cannot completely support in-house. That’s not to say we don’t recommend services we don’t offer. If we feel that a client will benefit from a service we will recommend it even if we don’t offer it. We won’t do something just because we can. Sometimes we can best serve a customer by referring them elsewhere. An example would be affiliate marketing. There are so many great people out there that specialize strictly in affiliate marketing that we refer our clients to the people that can help them the most.

Steve: You have been building Single Throw for the last few years. Since this not your first startup, what are some lessons learned, good or bad, which you have applied to this venture?
Larry: One major lesson I learned early on is that failure is a pre-condition to success. We have failed more times than I care to count but each time, each failure contained lessons that lead to great successes.

Steve: Since you are a serial entrepreneur and have been through many business cycles, with the economy in a tough spot these days, do you feel it is a good time to start a business?
Larry: That is a very difficult question to answer. I was moving furniture into my first office at 9:00 am on September 11th 2001. Living and growing up so close to the twin towers at the end of the day I had many emotions flowing through my head related to the tragedy of that day, I also wondered if I would be able to sustain my fledgling business in most uncertain times I’ve ever experienced. To make matters worse I had to overcome the stigma of the dot-com bubble bursting and the fact that very few people knew what Internet marketing was or believed that they needed it.

As someone that started their business at one of the worst times in history to do so I’m a big believer that if there is a need for the services or products you offer than there are no other factors that matter.

All a bad economy is going to do is make it harder to sell your services. I know that sounds like a big thing but it’s not that it just means that you have to be a better salesperson and work harder. If you’re adverse to enhancing your sales skills or working harder then you shouldn’t be starting a business in any economy.
Case in point, my business will be up over 25% this year and the third quarter is shaping up to be the best in our six year history. I have to work harder, longer and smarter but we’re thriving. As far as sales skills go I’m proud to say I’m not someone a competitor wants to go head to head with. I never stop working on my sales skills and I have yet to ever lose a deal to a competitor, good economy or bad.

NEXT TIME: In part two of this two-part interview, we discuss Internet marketing plans, differences between marketing product and service-focused companies, advice for the next 12-18 months.