I think that happens a lot. Whether it’s someone new to online marketing or search engine optimization or anything else—a lack of familiarity can make it more difficult to begin anything. I can’t help but think that if my friend just knew more about the potential and the basics, she would at least entertain the option. How many people who now thrive online once felt confused by terms like organic search, search engine spiders, keywords, optimized content, meta tags, title tags and quality links?

In my opinion, familiarity breeds empowerment. It starts with having access to experts or resources that make it easy to understand new terms, new industries, strange practices, technical complexities.

Maybe my friend will find ways to build her dream business without going online. If so, more power to her. But I would love for her to be able to choose a broader target market if she wants to. There are lots of great resources that explain the basics about getting online and what you can do to get an online business found. Maybe I’ll just be the pest she’ll thank later and send a few resources her way. You never know!

If you know someone—or are someone—who is thinking about building an online business, you can familiarize yourself with some basic terms and concepts with this free white paper. Select the link below and get more empowered.

Getting Found Online - SEO Guide (more)

Focus on search engine optimization (SEO) results and get essential tips to help you make your website more naturally visible to search engines like Google® and Yahoo®.

When visiting the nsMarketing section of the new storefront, note that the products and services can no longer be purchased through the website. However, you will see an online marketing calculator that can give you a general idea of how best to spend the budget you have allotted to online marketing (also covered in this newsletter), a toll free number to speak to a specialist, or a form to submit to be contacted by a specialist at a later time.

If you have purchased online marketing products—a press release, perhaps—on the storefront before, this may come as a bit of a surprise. You might ask yourself, “Why can’t I purchase products for myself anymore?”

A New Approach to Serving Our Clients

In the past, Network Solutions took a more product-based approach to online marketing. While individual products relating to organic search engine optimization and paid search marketing had their benefits for clients (and still do), we have moved towards a service-based approach. Clients have one point of contact for all of their online marketing services, ensuring that campaigns including organic search engine optimization, paid search marketing, and online optimized press releases use complementary keywords and research and provide a unified effort to maximize the benefit to you, the client.

In the end, you are not looking for a specific product or service. You are looking for a solution—an answer to the question, “How can I get my website found on the Internet by the people I want to find it?” The new storefront approach—working with a specialist from the beginning, before specific products or services are purchased—ensures that we can help you develop a road map that will maximize benefit at a budget you can afford.

Contacting a Consultant

While our new online marketing calculator can give you a general idea of the best ways to allocate your online marketing budget, speaking with a specialist is the best solution. Our consultants understand working with many different budget levels and are well versed in search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, and the benefits of online press releases. Contact us today at 1-866-376-1531 or visit the main nsMarketing page to learn more.

I had heard a similar presentation of this nature during the Inbound Marketing Summit here in San Francisco by Chris Brogan but thought it would be intriguing to bring it up here in light of the panel discussion. Here’s the concept behind why PR, Marketing & Advertising “sucks”, as given by Le Meur:

Do not trust any advertising message or press release, they are generally fake.
Le Meur states that this is the press releases and messages that you would typically receive are all bias towards the product. They’re always going to be “one-sided” and aren’t neutral in any way.

Bad practice by so-called “PR experts” can burn your experience & leads to lack of trust.
With Le Meur’s case, he had been treated in a harsh manner by some PR firms who simply doesn’t understand how to manage relationships properly and effectively. Examples of bad practices by PR firms include having interns write fake iPhone app reviews or perhaps addressing emails to the wrong individuals with a templated (and non-personalized) header (”Dear <first name>”). In light of this, Le Meur has decided that it’s not appropriate for PR agencies to handle the communication & conversation with bloggers and the media so he does it himself.

If your product is good enough online, you don’t need the publicity.
This resonates with me because if you have an online component and are doing a great job reaching out to people through outreach, engagement and conversation, then you don’t need to spend the extra money going out putting up banner ads, issuing press releases and undertaking all the other promotional steps. The word of mouth effort will be strong if people are happy with the existing product. They will be your advocates. So focus on helping to create a better product and have people use it online, elicit feedback, improve, and repeat the cycle all over again – the more people that are happy with it, the less effort you will need to exert to promote it.

So now what?

Before you think that these are simply just reasons why you should do everything by yourself, there are steps you need to take to ensure that you’re on the right path. Without taking care of these first, you’re not really prepared to do this self-publicity by yourself.

Find an empty space.
This is similar to finding a niche. Take a look at the market and if you see an opening for a service that isn’t being provided, take advantage of it and be the first provider!

Ship as soon as you can.
Sometimes, unfinished and “beta” products can help you get noticed and offer some great assistance. Just look at what Le Meur did with Seesmic – they released an unfinished product and it has since spread and grown to become a good one. According to Le Meur, people online are used to looking at unfinished product – they understand that there are things that will be rolled out in later phases so it’s alright to get your product out the door as quickly as possible. Although, this doesn’t apply to all products in the known world. Some things should be finished to its fullest extent if possible, but speaking generically, ship as soon as you can.

Listen to every single piece of feedback you get.
Whether it’s positive or even negative feedback, make sure you listen to every single piece of feedback. Le Meur suggests looking on Twitter search under your brand to see what people are saying about your product. It’s suggested that if you interact with an angry user who is unhappy with your product and show them that you care about their input, then you’ll be able to convert them to being a happier person and perhaps even then a supporter of your product. This is where a community manager would come in handy.

Answer especially if it’s negative.
Don’t shy away from any negative press or feedback. These are the things that will get you to improve your product. Let’s face it…no one has a 100% perfect product that everyone absolutely adores. All products have some noticeable flaw that you might not have accounted for. So get rid of the delusions of grandeur and instead focus on how you can get your product up to snuff.

Use all the tools available to filter the feedback.
Don’t rely on Google or search engines to get you the feedback. There are other tools that you can add to your arsenal. Obviously one would be Twitter, but what about using feedback support with GetSatisfaction or perhaps ZenDesk? UserVoice is also another option. Don’t think that by using one option, you’re able to account for most feedback. Give your users multiple points of entry to leave you feedback.

Most important, create a long term community.
If you’re thinking that a community happens overnight, you’re sorely mistaken. Plan for the long-term and let your community grow by itself. Fans come and go with the tide and over the long-term, you’re going to accumulate more people in your community as long as you take care of your product and do right by the customer.

These are basic steps that you should take to get your message out, but find what works and what doesn’t for you and build upon that. If you find that you need more marketing dollars or a PR agency, then that would be the way for you to go, but the Internet has offered a wider avenue to explore when it comes to promotions and the only person suited to reach out to a community about your product is, quite frankly, you.

Good luck!

- One to maintain your site – typically a Content Management System web interface

- One to handle your email marketing campaigns & lead generation efforts

- An interface to manage online advertising for PPC keyword bids on Google, Yahoo & MSN

- Domain registration & management

- Any e-commerce websites to help facilitate purchases

- Social media brand monitoring

- Interface to communicate with other teams to help manage customer relations (e.g. CRM system)

All of these sites/software that a company uses is probably all well and good but is probably more in tune with medium to large businesses. Sure, small businesses can handle this – I’m not disputing this, but isn’t there more of a need to find some way to consolidate these efforts to make it simpler for members of your marketing/communication team to maintain the brand presence online? I’d say so.

An idea would be to find a company that can handle a majority of these responsibilities or at least offer services that you can use an all-or-nothing approach. Yes, there are some caveats to using this method, but the purpose of this post is to make you think about rather than going to multiple websites to manage 20 different things, perhaps you should invest in companies that already offer these services as a bundled package.

What do I mean? Well take for example how Network Solutions has its offerings. Sure, when you think about Network Solutions, you’re looking at them for domain services. You want a new web address, you come to Network Solutions. They also do hosting. That’s it. So you have your website and hosting and then what? Do you go out to find yourself an email marketing vendor? What about search? Do you immediately sign up for a Google AdWords account?You also need to worry about monitoring traffic to your sites? Where do you go to get that from?

All of these are valid questions and things to think about, but does it surprise you to know that Network Solutions offers a majority of these services as part of their package? It’s not just Network Solutions, but other domain registrations that offer hosting. It’s the smart thing to do, especially for small businesses to take advantage of. Many of your resources are already being spent on doing multiple things to help drive business to your company so instead of paying for things like complex technology, you might want to stick with using the services your provider offers. Not saying whether they’re good or bad, it’s still a great offer to take advantage of.

Keeping with Network Solutions as an example, by having your site hosted with them, your marketing team can have a one-stop shop to work on search engine marketing, localized targeting and even maximize your media dollars through email marketing efforts. Hosting providers may also be partnering with other vendors so that will help make things easier for you to work with. There’s no need for you to handle thousands of login credentials just to manage your marketing campaigns. Wait until your company grows to a larger one before you invest in more functional and complex technology. Hosting providers like to specialize in helping small businesses and offer many different resources to help guide you through this step-by-step process on creating & managing your online presence.

Sure, we’d all like for there to be a universal dashboard that can connect with every single vendor that we have a login for – such as email marketing vendors (Vertical Response, Blue Sky Factory, Constant Contact, etc.), social media efforts (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), search marketing (Yahoo, Google, MSN), and countless others. But until that startup gets off the ground, perhaps it’s best to focus on what offerings hosting providers can give you. More and more companies are branching beyond the realm of hosting & domain registration because they see there’s a need to help businesses with managing their product online rather than just supplying them the venue for their site files.

You can check out what services Network Solutions can offer you by clicking here.

- 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.

According to The National Association of Realtors®, during 2008, buyers used a variety of resources when looking for a home, but the most popular way to search was on the Internet. In fact, 87% of home buyers used the Internet! Buyers most commonly started their search online and then contacted a real estate agent afterwards. After searching online, 85% used a real estate agent to look for homes for them, 62% looked for yard signs, 48% attended open houses and 47% looked at print or newspaper ads. So during these tough times in the housing market, if you are a real estate professional and you don’t have your own Web site, you are probably missing out!

You may use a Multiple Listing Service to showcase your properties and therefore think you don’t need a Web site. However in this market there are a lot of good reasons to do both:

1. Using your own website to showcase your listings as well as in the MLS provides additional opportunities for your listings to be seen. Not only does it put them in front of potential buyers, it is also a great marketing tool to attract sellers to list their properties with you.
2. You own website gives you much more flexibility to create listings that stand out from the crowd.
3. When you place your listings on MLS, you are potentially sending buyers to your competitors. On your own web site, you are only showing your own listings.

Many real estate professionals find that they get a lot more clients from their own website than from the MLS. Now is a great time to start gathering information about your local area to create an informative Web site that will attract potential buyers. When you create your site, three things will help your listings attract the highest number of viewers:

1. Make sure the descriptions are very good, with correct information and LOTS of detail. Buyers don’t always search on a location – they may be looking for a home in a particular School District or Home Owners Association.
2. Include lots of really high quality photos and video. This will bring your listing to life and draw buyers in.
3. Include explicit directions to the property. Many buyers and buyer’s agents will “drive-by” a property before calling you.

We recently launched a new Web site package specifically designed to help real estate professionals get online. If you are a real estate agent or broker, looking for a quick and easy way to get a Web site, please take a look and let us know what you think.

And finally, some words from one of our customers, Owen Ahearn of Ahearn Realty Management Inc in the real estate business, about how his web site helps him attract business, even in a difficult market.

For more tips on using the Internet to attract clients, check out our interviews with independent realtors Bob Carney from Maryland and Jeff Royce from Northern Virginia:

Small Business Marketing Roundtable – Part 1: How Small Business Realtor’s Leverage Web 2.0 to Sell

Small Business Marketing Roundtable – Part 2: When Customers Leverage Web 2.0

If you’ve been enjoying the events that we’ve been bringing you, then you will NOT want to miss this one! This one requires no travel you can attend it from the convenience of your office or home! We’ve created a free video conference that’s jam packed with insights & online marketing tips for small businesses!

Mark your calendar because on October 29 at 1 pm we’re providing the Solutions Stars Video Conference! Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone, & Network Solutions Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda met with 32 top bloggers at BlogWorld Expo. We asked them to share their insights & tips on online marketing for small businesses for you. It was all captured on video & now we have a conference features nine different documentary style video sessions:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

In addition to the Solutions Stars Video Conference site, please visit the event pages on Facebook and Upcoming.

Here are the steps:

a) Bookmark this page – http://www.solutionsstarsvideo.com/

b) Create a calendar event for themselves

c) Choose the event time

d) Come up with good questions for the chat room

We’d love it if you’d grab a badge for your blog or site.