Inbound Marketing: New Media Strategies and Social Media for Offline Business

Understanding the Importance of Social Media for Offline Businesses

Long-time business owners may not think social media and offline business should coexist, but in realtiy, and particularly in today’s marketplace, a social media presence is essential. Brick and mortar businesses can use social media for branding, gaining name recognition and visibility at an extremely reasonable cost. Social media and inbound marketing are valuable tools in an advertising toolkit and should be an integral part of any business’s marketing strategy. Social media is also called the new media marketing.

How can you become involved in social media as an offline business? Start with a blog about your business and what you do. Be sure to update the blog often and encourage participation by way comments. You can research, discovering which social networks your customers use and become a presence on those networks. For example, you can create a Facebook page and invite customers and friends to visit your page. The page will link back to your blog and drive traffic back to your site and provide additional exposure for your business, thus increasing brand awareness.

Twitter is a very popular social media network. Most followers on Twitter are very loyal and will help promote your brand providing you engage without spamming. You must learn the social rules of Twitter and follow them accordingly or you will lose more clients than you will gain but if you use the proper etiquette you will profit for your involvement.

To make social networking work for your company, you must provide useful content that people will want to share. Bloggers today are becoming a leading source of information; work on building relationships with other bloggers through social media networks and they will provide valuable links for you.

Several social networks are specialized for businesses.

Examples include:

LinkedIn

ecademy

Xing

XeeSm

Naymz

viadeo

Explore these and other business/social media sites for the best fit for your company. It may not be wise just to join a large number of networks that you cannot maintain.

LinkedIn is one of the largest and most popular social networking platforms for business. By forming a LinkedIn group related to your company, you can attract possible sales leads. Ask your employees and others in your field to join your group. The group page will be linked to your blog, so users can find you easily. As an expert in your field, you can also answer questions on LinkedIn and gain exposure in that way.

Ecademy, spelled ecademy (small “e”), is another social network for companies and has grown quickly, having a loyal membership base. Ecademy allows you to post your business profile and connect with other entrepreneurs. Business owners can receive advice as well as promote their own services worldwide. Networking groups are a popular destination on ecademy.

Xing claims to be the number one business/social network in Europe. Over eight million people use Xing. Xing sets up connections between businesses so they can find others to meet their needs and sell their services and products. You can search among all the professionals listed to find the right match for your needs. Xing also features groups and popular events, where you can meet other network users. Job seekers will find a separate application for them on Xing.

Naymz is an online network that offers some different features from some of the other business networks. Over one million people subscribe to this free service. Naymz offers a blogging feature and identity verification, among other things. The main idea on Naymz is to establish a positive reputation. Users build their reputation score through various assessments. If you have a high-scoring reputation on Naymz, the network will provide you with a sponsored Google listing. Naymz also assists in monitoring internet sources for any time your name appears online.

XeeSM states that they are “a social business application platform.” Professionals can keep all their contacts and their individual social networks together in an orderly fashion. Salespeople are able to reach clients through any number of social media; therefore, time and money are saved. XeeSM also provides a way for recruiters and job seekers to find one another quickly. XeeSM also offers various applications, including a business level app that is quite useful.

Brick and mortar business should embrace new media, inbound marketing, Web 2.0, etc. Social media is a low-cost way to build your image worldwide. Social media and inbound marketing are the future of advertising; it is better to become involved sooner than later but in the right way, with an overall marketing strategy designed to create brand awareness and a unique online identity, the ultimate Internet image.

Would you like to talk about your business’s social media strategy? Allow us to help you create brand awareness and a social media identity that will connect with your target audience!

Contact Us Today!

John Zajaros

The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004 (bus)
440-821-7018 (cell)
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

Understanding Inbound Marketing: Video Marketing and the New Media

How to You Make Video Marketing for Your Brick and Mortar Business?

Videos are one of the best ways to engage customers in today’s expanding Internet market. Video marketing and offline business go hand in hand. Brick and mortar businesses can use video marketing to reach an online audience that might not otherwise know they exist.

Videos can be used via a variety of platforms and then distributed by way of social media. Video has become the King Kong of new media marketing, delivering brief, targeted messages to highly targeted audiences.

Using video to promote your brick and mortar business may seem like a scary proposition; and, to many business owners it is. Interestingly, video can be fun and will do wonders to enhance your Internet image and your brand. If you simply cannot get in front of a camera, or do not have the time, there are a number of inbound marketing firms that will handle the entire process for you; and, at a relatively low cost when viewed against the cost of television.

Marketing videos should be short and sweet, they do not have to be complicated. If you plan to talk and need a script, be sure to write a brief script and practice it. You can also wing it, depending on your comfort level in front of a camera and with the subject material.

Use music in your video or give a quick tour of your business, be upbeat and engaging. The more engaging, the more visual, the better! Make your videos short, sweet, and to the point, you have between 30 seconds nd 3 minutes, after that you will lose your audience! If you find you sound like the teacher from The Wonder Years, get someone to do the videos for you…please!

Video and Inbound Marketing

So how do video and inbound marketing work together? If you really want exposure for your business, you may want your video to go “viral”. This means it will be posted all over the web and will draw traffic to your website. An effective way of promoting your video is to send it to friends, employees, and customers but also make it available to the general public. Post your videos on YouTube, Break, Viddler, and a few of the others and watch it go viral, particularly if it has solid content and is engaging. YouTube and many of the other video sharing sites will automatically announce your new video to the various social media sites, so make sutre you are connected that way.

Video gives customers a way to see behind the scenes at your business and see how you operate. It is not effective to just make a short video piece and upload it to YouTube alone, use oen of the many services available to get your videos out across the Internet. While many people are attracted to TubeMogul because it is free, it is only free for personal use. To get your videos out across the web, use TrafficGeyser or perhaps Senuke, the former is by far the best. New media marketing plays a huge role in successful video marketing and vice versa. Companies should promote their videos via their social media memberships and on their blogs. Get the word out and let people see your video campaign.

Viral Video?

How do you create a viral video? Comedy seems to work well; people enjoy sending funny videos to their friends but be careful. Music is also a popular element – check out a Creative Commons license to use someone else’s music. Don’t worry about utilizing high-quality equipment for filming. Most You Tube videos are made with very basic cameras. I would suggest a Flip MinoHD or Flip Ultra and two tripods, one for the desk and one for biggeer jobs. I would also recommend Googling for free music sites (this is just one), there are a number of them available.

Investigate other video-sharing sites in addition to YouTube, as mentioned above. Again, TrafficGeyser is an excellent resource but you can join TubeMogul and get access to a list of video sharing sites that way. Experiment at first and see what you can do on your own or, you can hire a professional video marketing firm or an inbound marketing consultancy that specializes in video and let them handle it for you.

Contact bloggers in your field and get suggestions, send them a link to your video and ask them for their input. You can also place a link when you comment on other blogs, as long as it is related to the blog content and isn’t spammy. Above all, ask for input and you will get what you need, ask for the order and you will get banned. Spam is an online death sentence, so be open, honest, and do not overtly sell via social media or on other bloggers blogs.

Getting to Page One using Video Marketing

Marketing video can help you get to page one in Google rankings, and fast. The number of videos competing for a spot on page one is far lower than the number of articles and blog posts for the same spot…and search engines love quality video. Videos have less competition; therefore, it is easier to climb to the top. Make your video fun, informative, and short and you will find it on page one for the keywords you target in a few days, often in a few hours.

In addition to posting a great short video on your site, you must caption the video with appropriate keywords in the title, description, and tags. A video with an optimized title and tags has an even better chance of achieving a high search engine ranking (page one status).

Brick and Mortar Business and Video Marketing

An effective video marketing strategy does not mean every video must go viral. Offline (and online) businesses should consider videos part of a comprehensive, new media, inbound marketing strategy. Video adds an element of personality to a business’s message and provides an identity and a connection. Employees and customers enjoy videos and may pass them on to others, a mini-viral effect of sorts.

The rewards of video marketing can be huge; and video marketing can definitely be viewed on the “fun” side of new media marketing.

So, have fun and get found!
John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004
440-821-7018
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

Overcoming Inertia: The Ultimate Internet Image and Inbound Marketing

Vision, Taking Action, Inbound Marketing, and Page One

Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of working with several business people who all have one thing in common, a vision of their future! As many of you reading this already know, vision without implementation, without correct and focused action is useless. Knowing you want to reach a destination may get the ball rolling but without a plan of action, a map, all the vision is the world won’t even get you out of the driveway!

Interestingly, and sadly, many people have also lost their vision. The vision that once drove them daily, got them out of bed in the morning excited to great another day, has taken a back seat to the mundane, day-to-day struggle just to stay afloat in this economy.

And that is, as noted above, extremely sad!

In today’s advertising and marketing world, with its rapid transition from the old media, outbound approach to marketing, to new media, inbound marketing, many businesses simply do not have the time or the knowledge to implement the strategies necessary to stay current with the latest trends…much less get their face (i.e., their brand and their message) in front of as many prospective clients as possible.

The market has changed and what was once an outbound, market driven economy is now a consumer driven, search-based world.

Googling has become a verb. The buyer is now taking an active role in the process, seeking out merchandise, services, etc. It is no longer enough, if it ever really was, to stick your business’s name in front of enough people, knowing they will come. “If you build it, they will come” just doesn’t cut it any more.

In the current marketplace, it is necessary to:

  • Be where prospective clients are searching for your services or merchandise
  • Capture their attention
  • Provide a reason for them to continue to focus on your message
  • Provide them with an incentive so you can capture their contact information
  • Build a relationship with that individual until they are ready to make a purchasing decision
  • Continue to build a relationship after the transaction in order to create an ongoing relationship with your clients and hence increase your business’s overall profitability

Once you understand the dynamics of new media, inbound marketing, how do you apply the model to your business, whether a practice, a retail establishment, or service-based business?

The fact is, unless you want to spend several hours a day, for at least a year or two, educating yourself, you can’t. In today’s world, you simply can’t do it alone.

The world has changed and, if you want your business or practice to survive and flourish, you must change with it.

Change is never easy, we all resist change. Change is indeed frightening for many and the inertia we all feel is, at times, overwhelimg. Inertia is a powerful force in nature, and in business; and, once set in our ways, it is a difficult task to consider a new approach, something that may be intimidating, something we are not familiar (read: comfortable) with…but is essential if you are to survive and prosper.

Understand this, regardless of whether we are physicians or plumbers, accountants or exterminators, attornies or landscapers, woodworkers or photographers, we are all salesmen; and, we are all marketing a product. Be it ourselves or a specific product, we are all selling something!

Don’t like the idea of being a salesman?

Get over it! We are all marketing a product, a service…ourselves!

If you want to sell yourself, and, in the end, that is what we are doing, regardless of your business or profession, you must be where the buyers are and you must provide enough of a reason for the buyer to pick you out of a myraid of choices available to them.

With 360,000 competing web pages for the keyword phrase “how to stop sciatica,” how do you get to page one? For any keyword phrase that pays?

Pays?

By pays, I mean a keyword phrase people are searching for. By people searching, I mean your target audience, people searching for what you offer, be it a product or service; and, people ready, willing, and able to make a buying decision.

Because, and this is key, if you aren’t on page one, do you really think you have a shot?

Do you think people seek you out if you are on page 8 or 10? Or even on page 2, 3 or 4?

Almost never!

I talked to a new client the other day and he stated, rather emphatically as a matter of fact, that he never searched beyond page one! This is the rule, not the exception.

You have to be on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Bing, and yes, even Ask, for all the keywords important to your marketing message, if you are going to prosper in the consumer-driven, search-oriented world.

Period!

If you want to get the attention of your target marketing, your target audience, in today’s new media, inbound marketing world?

You must be where your prospective clients are actively searching, and that means you need to focus your message on yourtarget audience and on the keywords they are searching for…and more!

Now, most individuals, even most Internet marketing professionals, and even a few inbound marketing consultants, particularly those heavy into search engine optimization (SEO), will tell you that you can get to page one in one of two ways:

  1. You can pay an incredible sum of money each and every month to be on page one via pay-per-click advertsing (PPC).
  2. Or you can earn your way onto page one “organically” by way of SEO, meaning by way of links and longevity, and only after a long period of time, usually a year to a year and a half, and only after expending a lot of money to do so.

I call that a lose-lose!

Again, for most individuals and businesses to get to page one there are only two ways, pay a ton of money or spend a lot of time and money (i.e., SEO).

Remember this!

For every <em>day</em> you are not on page one, it is costing you a lot of money!

Why?

Because you aren’t where people (read: your target market) are searching for your products and services!

Millions and millions of people access the Internet daily from their computers and from other mobile devices; and, more are joining them every day. If you think you can survive with a weekly newspaper ad, an occasional radio spot, and a yellow pages listing?

Good luck!

Those days are long gone!

In today’s search-based, consumer-driven economy, you must be where the action is!

The action is on page one of the various search engines, Google getting the lion’s share.

The action is also in social media.

Your business or practice needs to have an Internet presence, an Internet image if you will, throughout social media. The various facets of Web 2.0 (social media, blogging, etc.), including a central hub (blog instead of just a static website), and pages on Facebook and Twitter, are crucial to your business’s long term viability, and profitability.

Additionally, you must aggressively build an image as an authority, an expert in your niche or specialty.

While building The Ultimate Internet Image, you must build a relationship with current and future clients, patients, and customers. Relationship marketing is not just a catchy phrase, it is a reality and it should be at the foundation of all you do, your entire focus should be relationship-based. We will discuss relationship marketing at length in a subsequent blog post.

Significantly, if social media has demonstrated anything, it is that people are ravenous for social connection, a relationship.

Provide it and win!

Once again, more on this in an upcoming post.

Ultimately, the transition from outbound advertising to an inbound approach to client acquisition does not have to be painful. In fact, the transition can be an exciting, exhilaratingly profitable experience, one that can and often does transform the way you do business…long term!

Inertia is a negative force, one counter-productive to success in business, any business; and in life, any life!

The Ultimate Internet Image specializes in assisting brick and mortar business owners make the transition to a highly effective, focused, inbound marketing strategy, one guaranteed to enhance lead production, sales, and overall profitability.

Inertia is powerful, what we do is more-so!

Contact us today for a no cost, inbound marketing consultation, as well as an overall competitive analysis.

John Zajaros
Director of Marketing
440-821-7018 (mobile)
216-712-6526 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

Are You Facing an Extinction Level Event? Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

I Don’t Want to Do That Kind of Advertising!

I tutor ADD and ADHD kids, part-time. It is how I started in business online and, in one way or another, I have been tutoring and coaching kids for more than 30 years. Tutoring is something you become addicted to. Tutoring, coaching, and mentoring children is incredibly rewarding, the kids give you so much back! It is also a way I can give back, paying it forward by helping kids in need of my help.

You might be asking:

What any of this has to do with advertising, outbound marketing, the Internet, and/or inbound marketing?

I’m glad you asked!

I was working with one of my students, a very bright young man who attends one of the best catholic high schools in the area. I will call him Bill. Bill had a paper due on dinosaurs and the questions had to do with social behavior, communication, auditory and visual (i.e., body language), and other visual displays (e.g., crests, horns, etc.). It was an interesting assignment, particularly for someone interested in paleontology and paleoanthropology. One really doesn’t have a lot to do with the other…but as a physical anthropologist and a scientist I find the “old stuff” fascinating.

Well, one of the questions was actually a typical high school level question:

Did the dinosaurs instinctively know they were heading for extinction?

Now, we could get into a whole discussion on the topic but it is really kind of a dumb question…sorry! In actuality, how could they have known? Even if you anthropomorphize, attributing all sorts of human characteristics to dinosaurs, and with Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park I through III there certainly has been enough of that, how could they have possibly known that a huge rock was going to fall out of the sky and cause an extinction event the likes of which the Earth had never seen before or since…maybe!

Now you are really asking:

What the heck does any of this have to do with advertising, outbound marketing, the Internet, and/or inbound marketing?

Interestingly, I was recently discussing advertising, the Internet, and inbound marketing with a prospective client, complete with a detailed report on just how to boost sales and develop a relationship with current and prospective clients, the whole shabang!

The report detailed a strategy that included fixing their static website, something as extinct as the dinosaurs in its efficacy, integrating Web 2.0 (social media) into their marketing strategy, and developing both a video and article marketing strategy in order to enhance their authority online and increase traffic. The plan would increase traffic not only to their website but through the doors of their business; and thus allowing for a very real opportunity to convert Internet traffic into sales, both online and offline.

To my amazement, the business owner looked at me and said:

“I don’t want to do that kind of advertising!”

Yes, in a world in which the Internet is not just a cool toy but an incredibly powerful resource for businesses big and small, a resource that connects to the majority of consumers worldwide, there are still business owners who “don’t want to do that kind of advertising!”

Do you get the connection?

I thought you might?

I was witnessing the precursor of an extinction event…that particular business’s extinction!

I am relatively certain the dinosaurs didn’t have a clue an asteroid was going to take a Caribbean vacation, dropping into the Gulf of Mexico, or whatever the dinosaurs called it back then. Yet, just as sure as the asteroid hit and altered the history of planet Earth forever, creating conditions that would eradicate the most powerful beasts to ever walk the Earth, so this particular business would face extinction in the not too distant future! I knew an extinction level event was going to occur.

In fact, if I were a betting man I would make book on it!

You see, people are driving the market now, “Googling” to find what they need, when they need it. The days of the full page spread in the Yellow Pages or the Cleveland Plain Dealer paying off like they once did are behind us; and search-based, new media advertising, along with the implementation of an inbound marketing strategy, is the new advertising and marketing reality.

Ignoring “that kind of advertising” will have an adverse impact on the life expectancy of your business…an extinction-level event or E.L.E if you want to go all Deep Impact, Armageddon, and Hollywood on me!

Ultimately, the transition must be made or extinction will be your business’s reality. Like the dinosaurs happily grazing on grass, or eating each other for lunch, the end of outbound advertising is upon us. The transition to a new form of marketing, inbound marketing, has arrived and has, at least for the time being, transformed the landscape.

To use another evolutionary phrase here:

It is “survival of the fittest!”

Those who are willing to adapt will flourish; and, those unwilling to make the necessary transition will find they are facing the new reality head on.

The transition does not have to be painful, in fact it can be quite pleasant given the proper guidance and the implementation of the proper strategy. The days of outbound advertising being enough are over, inbound marketing and creating The Ultimate Internet Image will determine your evolutionary fitness and your ability to succeed long term.

It is up to you, extinction or adaptation.

The resources are within your grasp!

Unlike the dinosaurs who had nowhere to hide and no clue what was about to transpire, you have the knowledge and the wherewithal to alter the course and avoid an E.L.E!

The choice is yours!

For a free inbound marketing and comprehensive analysis, contact me anytime!

John Zajaros
Director of Marketing
The Ultimate Internet Image
440-821-7018 (cell)
216-539-7412 (office)
216-712-6526 (home)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

How to Succeed Using New Media Marketing: Inbound and Internet Marketing

An Understanding of New Media, Inbound Marketing is
Crucial When Attempting to Create The Ultimate Internet Image!

New Media Marketing and/or Inbound Marketing

New Media Marketing is a fairly new label for a well-established concept, relationship/referral marketing.

New media marketing is simply relationship and referral marketing with a Web 2.0, viral twist.

New media marketing is engaged in by online and offline businesses attempting to develop an online community, a following, a congregation, an aggregation of loyal, even raving fans!

The business following, the congregation, thus allows for and even encourages loyal customers, or raving fans, to come together, share experiences, tell stories, and offer anecdotes about their relationship and experiences with the Internet business or traditional brick and mortar concern in question.

The sharing of information enhances the company’s brand and solidifies the relationship between client and business, thus providing the business with a steady stream of repeat customers. I like the label “clients” much better…for a myriad of reasons.

The Warm Market

The most expensive client to develop is the cold one, the client with no precious experience with the business engaged in a marketing campaign.

Interestingly, while the previous statement has been proven time and again, many businesses, in fact most businesses, pursue the cold call, the cold lead, instead of developing a relationship with and marketing to their warm market, the clients they have developed over the weeks, months, and even years leading up to the present advertising and marketing campaign…often at great cost, both in dollars and resources (also dollars).

The new media experience often includes blogs, forums, podcasts (a rapidly emerging and very exciting area for expression), social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), and even certain extended mastermind groups (e.g., StomperNet, Infusionsoft, and others).

All of the aforementioned platforms, and a myriad of others, contribute to the viral effect created by the client’s positive experience and passed on….as they tell two people, and those two tell two people, and so on, and so on, and so on!

Just like the hair commercial: the viral effect of new media marketing!

Significantly, hundreds and often thousands will sing the praises of a business plugged in to and fully engaged in the new media, Web 2.0 experience. The new media marketing strategy, and the viral effect of such a marketing campaign, enhances the brand and creates opportunities for multiple sales over many weeks, months, and, again, years.

One of the best arguments for a business to engage in and develop a new media marketing strategy is the idea that outbound advertising, meaning intrusive, in-your-face, traditional advertising, has lost its influence on consumers. If in fact, it ever had much of one to begin with.

Evidence demonstrates conclusively that there has been a shift away from consumers simply accepting outbound advertising (i.e., newspaper, radio, Yellow Pages, junk mail, etc.) as something they must endure in order to make an intelligent purchasing decision.

Again, the data suggests that consumers are engaged in search driven buying behavior, they are taking an active role from beginning to end. Google has become a verb.

As in:

“To Google” or “I ‘Googled’ it the other day and then went out and bought the car I found online.”

Consumers are making buying decisions based on Internet research, “Googling,” and on referrals provided by followers, friends, and connections they have met online.

Interestingly, it has also been demonstrated rather conclusively that consumers are more inclined to take the word of a like-minded peer online, even if they have never actually met them, than to buy into the corporate-doublespeak, the outbound advertising spiel launched at them, often in invasive fashion, by traditional television ads (restroom breaks and trips to the fridge), radio (I change the channel, that’s why we have so many buttons! Right?), direct mail (making a comeback when done effectively but most is cat box filler), and newspaper advertising (expensive and impossible to track, also for the cats and even the bird cages). I hear newspapers are also good for cleaning windows.

New Media Marketing has a myriad of advantages over traditional, outbound advertising!

This trend will only continue over time, as millions find the Internet daily, hand-held connectivity is increasing exponentially, and the following trend continues:

*The Yellow Pages grows mold in the closet! (see the video)

*iPods, MP3 players, and CDs replace music on the radio!

*People get their news via the Internet…never to open a paper again! (except as liners and for windows!)

The fact is, there is still a place for outbound advertising but it will never be what it once was…the consumer would probably never allow it anyway!

To succeed offline, in a traditional brick and mortar business, or online as an affiliate, in an e-commerce “store” or in any number of other ways, new media marketing must be understood and implemented, particularly in this economy and with consumers growing wiser by the minute.

The combination of a down economy and an educated consumer means if a business, any business, isn’t fully committed and equally engaged in the new media marketing process…they may not make it! Or at the very least, the business will lose a lot of money, money they could have been making and spending to make more money.

The choice is an obvious one…or so one would think. Interestingly, people resist change, even business people, and even when the advice and service is quite affordable. It is human nature to resist change. It is also in the nature of most businesses to fail in the first 10 years…the decision seems a simple one…or is it?!

It is certainly the profitable one:

New Media Marketing works!

Contact me anytime for comments and questions…or just leave them here!

Prof John P J Zajaros Sr
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, For a no obligation inbound marketing consultation, including a new media strategy assessment and a complete competitive analysis, call me at either number above. Or email me for more information. Call 24/7 the machine is always on.