Internet | Letters From Dan

It’s hard to connect content and marketing

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: business owners, change, content, content is king, customers, Google, Internet, marketer, marketing, Nashville, Search Engine, Time, title, Web page, website
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

Business schools just don’t understand the value of content in your marketing efforts. Rarely do I run across a business owner who truly appreciates the term “content”. And we’ve found even those who do, don’t have time to create it because “they’re too busy marketing and finding new customers”.

The bottom line is this, if you don’t understand that the internet has changed the game – then content will never make sense. For most people marketing classes were about the three P’s and “location, location, location”, and branding. And in all of those cases, the examples in the book were billboards, product packaging and sales letters.

That’s it!

To expect Master’s degree wielding marketers to grasp the Shift from post cards to websites is maybe too much to ask. But in the same breath, aren’t those same people the ones who shop, research and buy online?

Somehow, it still baffles me when I can’t make the connection between the content on the sites they’re currently buying products from – and their inability to translate that to marketing analysis.

Building the bridge between yesterday’s marketing classes and today’s marketing environment is the key, for sure. I find once business owners fully understand how the web works, what Google’s role is and how consumers find goods – the light bulb will have gone off. I’m not yet sure if it’s the mechanics of Google or the mechanics of the internet – but one of them solves the other.

Words. It comes down to words. When you search for “Honda 355 Motorcycle 600 cc Nashville”, Google’s job is to find something to return to the person searching that matches their query. And the ONLY thing they have to go on, is words.

I heard you screaming in the back. Yep, you’re trying to tell me that links are just as important. Well, you have the right idea – but you’re not using the right “words” to convey it. A link is code someone types onto their website that references yours. No matter what, that link is made of words – even if it’s a picture.

Together, the words used to link one page to the next, the paragraphs of text on web pages, the names of the photos you’ve loaded up to the web pages, the title of web page and the words people use when they comment on your posts – that is content.

Content + Search Engines = Marketing

If you’ve got great, structurally correct content – then you’ve got a marketing plan any professor would be proud of. (Even if that means you have to show them how many units you sold first).

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A Career in Internet Marketing?

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: affiliate marketing, Business, career in internet marketing, company website, Customer, domain name, experience, facebook, Fortran, Internet, internet marketing career, iPad, iPod, keyword research, learn internet marketing, Pay per click, QuickBooks, Rachel Ray, Regis Philbin, sitesell, Wordtracker
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

You know what’s interesting about a career in internet marketing? I don’t know anyone who is doing it and is unemployed. Nope, not a single person.

You may have to answer this question for me, because I just don’t know the answer, but back in the late 1980′s were there any C++ programmers who didn’t have jobs? Fortran? Basic? Like internet marketing now, I think there were more jobs open than people looking.

I believe there will be a day when internet marketing is no longer a career, but something as fundamental as knowing how to use QuickBooks, or how to do payroll. It will eventually become a necessity of doing business, successfully.

Despite some notable celebrities declaring the internet to be dead, it’s in fact in its infancy. I believe the iPad is the first application that is taking the internet to a new level. Perhaps that could be said about the iPod – but that was just a new application for your phone. If you know anyone with an iPad, they’ll tell you that they do use the internet differently now.

Some day the internet and your TV will be one thing. You’ll be able to click on Regis Philbin’s tie and buy it directly from the company website that made it. You’ll be able to download Rachel Ray’s recipes directly to your stove top computer. And you’ll be able to access your fridge from the grocery store to make sure you actually do need milk.

The part that really makes internet marketing a good career choice is its ability to create income when you’re not employed. Affiliate marketing, pay per click ads, electronic products and even physical product sales are always at your fingertips.

Since companies hire internet marketing gurus to help increase their sales, the end of those consulting contracts means you just have more time to dedicate to your own websites, products and direct income. It’s a marketable skill you can use for others or yourself.

I don’t think “doing just to do” is the best way to learn the trade however. You can spend a lot of time learning lessons many have learned before you. Teaching yourself how to write effective copy, install autoresponders, build squeeze pages, create affiliate links and read html is a bit daunting. I’d recommend you take a course that teaches you how to do “everything” with one site, so that you can take those lessons and use it for any site.

The one I recommend is the e-Learning course SBI puts out. It does take a little focus and some time, but do you really think you’re going to absorb it all in 3 days anyway? The best part about the e-Learning course is that it includes:

The internet marketing course that is taught at Universities
A Wordtracker Pro Keyword research account
Keyword analysis tools
A domain name of your own
Hosting for your website
Newsletter software
Customer contact capture autoresponder software
Complete integration with Social Marketing tools like Facebook
Forums for in-depth question, case studies and learning
A complete series of how-to’s, like how to make money from your site
And more. . .all in video, audio and written format

It doesn’t get much better. So if you’re looking to make internet marketing a career, a second income or a way to escape your current job . . . PLEASE check out SBI’s e-Learning Course now by clicking this link:

SBI e-Learning Course

You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll learn more of what works in this short course than in two years training yourself. If you’ve taken the course, please leave a comment and share your experience – otherwise, ask me about it and I’ll tell you more.

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Local Business Internet Marketing – What it isn’t

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: blogging, Business, computer monitor, customers, Google, hilltop position, Internet, internet connection, internet marketers, local business marketing, local search, Local Small Business Marketing, marketer, online, realtor, small business owners, unique selling proposition
Posted in Local Small Business Marketing

You’re on the verge on being inundated by local business internet marketing services.

While you dote methodically on growing your company, internet marketers are planning to visit your company in droves in the near future. Because the need is so great and the experience level so small, small business owners are going to be getting phone calls by the dozens by June of 2011.

And what you’re going to hear is this, “Let us get your site to the top of Google, so you can stop paying for billboards and yellow pages”. They’re going to tell you about the antiquated nature of newspapers, and the inability to track revenue from billboards. And you’re also going to hear that the ability to follow-up with your customers is where the gold is.

Guess what? That’s all it’s going to take to get millions of business owners to sign the dotted line.

But that is exactly what’s going to get those same millions of companies to switch from one local business internet marketing professional to the next, month after month. Because local search marketing is not about getting to the top of Google – and it’s not about following up with your customers.

To acquire customers using the internet, you’re going to have to be found – that’s the part about getting to the top of Google. But being on top doesn’t mean people are taking their credit cards out ready to buy.

Local business owners who are personable on site are going to need to extend that personality to the computer monitor. Products that sell themselves at the register are going to have to be marketed online. Nobody’s buying that last second “Hershey” bar on your site, if they have to wait 7 days for it to arrive.

The bottom line is this: until you’re on the first page of the search results, and until you can both capture and follow-up with your customers – you’re not even in the game. But once you accomplish that – that’s when the game begins.

Realtors for instance get many more leads from Realtor.com, Homes.com and Craigslist than they’ll ever get from their sites alone. So what if you’re at the top of Google for Mayberry Real Estate? If everyone in the town is searching for listings on Homes.com – your hilltop position will be quiet as a mouse. So don’t let a marketer sell you the #1 position for Mayberry Real Estate if all your customers are on Craigslist.

Once you climb the search results to page 1, and get your customers to the front door, then you’re going to have to use your charm, your personality and your guile to meet their every need. You’re going to have to test and restest, to try things and fail, to ultimately become a friend to your customers.

Local Business Internet Marketing isn’t about being on top of the mountain. It’s about getting to the top and then proving to your customers that you deserve to be there. And ultimately to “employ” your customers to help you stay there by blogging about you, tweeting about you and making videos for you.

Local. Likable. Learned.

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Marketing small businesses is more than keywords

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: Business, customers, e mail addresses, ebay, Google, Internet, internet marketing for small businesses, keywords, ladder of value, marketing, small business owners, website
Posted in Local Small Business Marketing

Internet marketing for small businesses is marketing. It’s not a separate category, or something special some companies do. The internet is part of our lives and with the advent of the iPad, it’s soon to become a larger part.

I find it interesting that most of my “business” clients don’t really do much “marketing”. They do some advertising, but that’s about it. I get the sense that there’s a “build it and they will come” mentality among small business owners. Well, guess what? There is a better mouse trap.

Let’s try this. . . think of the internet as a tool you can use to reach your current customers. That’s it. Don’t think beyond that. What would that allow you to do?

internet marketing for small business

Well, e-mail is an internet utility that is virtually free. If you’re about to introduce a new product, you could tell all your current customers using e-mail – for free. You could invite them to a Grand Opening. You could even help your neighbor and invite them all to his Grand Opening. (If it’s next door, wouldn’t they stop in to say hello?)

Simple enough.

Now, if you can see how efficient that is, and ultimately how successful you could be doing that . . . how do we get more of our customers’ e-mail addresses?

You could have a pad of paper by the cash register. You could have a drawing where people toss their business card into a fishbowl. You could call them all and ask for it. You could even put a form on your website where they type their name and e-mail into it themselves.

So the next question would be how can you get more customers, so you can get more e-mail addresses, so you can send more notices, so you can make more sales?

That’s where it gets personal. For a real estate client we use Craigslist. A buddy of mine uses eBay. My folks use Google. A car dealer may use billboards. And a personal injury lawyer may just find the best tool is the back page of the yellow pages. That’s where you really start to make headway.

My challenge to you is ask your clients how they think they got from not knowing who you were to hiring you. Let’s put together a road map of how someone who’s never heard of you, eventually hears about you, is impressed with you and then hires you.

When we can master that and begin to understand the “ladder of value” we’ve already got in place, then we can start creating a network to find more people who want what you do.

Therein lies the art. the joy. the wonder of internet marketing.

And therein lies success.

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Your Blog Must Have A Theme

Posted By: DanRMorris | Tags: advertising, blog, blog must have a theme, Business, business model, Camera, Consistency, consistent theme, Digital, digital camera, Distinct, Internet, Internet Marketing: My Ph.D., marketing, merchants, monetize, neighbor, persistence, Wordpress
Posted in An Internet Marketing Journal

To have a successful blog, and by that I mean one that not only attracts traffic but is easy to monetize, you need to have a consistent theme. The “blog about my life” isn’t nearly as marketable or as “follow-able” as the Digital Camera Blog or Internet Marketing Blog. In fact you can’t even get some of the bigger companies to advertise on your blog unless it is theme based. Here’s what Netflix requires before they’ll agree to advertise on your blog:

* Related content

* Consistency with their brand, products or business model

Netflix

* Related advertising or merchants

* Distinct method of promotion

That doesn’t mean that your blog won’t necessarily make it to the top with extra effort, persistence and hard work. It just means that you may be disappointed when you show your neighbor how to load WordPress and you find out 3 months later he gets more traffic and better advertisers.

So don’t know the idea – and don’t jump on it. Just keep forward with that in mind.

(P.S. Netflix is as cool as it gets – so in my book they can be as scrupulous as they want to be.)