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Successful online marketing requires that you keep your marketing and website fresh. One of the best ways to do this is with new and innovative, and interactive, marketing techniques.  Currently, one of the growing mediums is the use of video to interact with and engage potential clients.  Here are 5 great ideas to use this fantastic medium.

1. Give away free video tutorials

What’s better than visiting a website that can show you how to do something useful?  For example, imagine that you have a website that sells mediation supplies. Cushions, altars, music, books etc…one great marketing video idea is to provide your website visitors with a quick video demonstrating how to use a product you sell on your website.  Even better would be to create a video that demonstrates a popular meditation technique.

Another example might be a website that sells information about pet training.  The video could be an image of an expert using a superior training technique to train their dog or bird an interesting or useful trick.  For example, teaching a dog to sit might be useful but demonstrating how to teach your dog to grab a beer from the refrigerator might me more interesting and exciting.  It all depends on your target market and their needs.

2. Video testimonials on your website.

Credibility is extremely important to a business.  If you’re considered an expert in your field, product or service, you don’t have to seek customers, they seek you.  Credibility can be enhanced by a variety of tools including but not limited to testimonials.

Let me just ask you this question, which would you spend $500 on, a product you thought was a good product or a product you knew was a good product because relevant and quality testimonials, success stories, and endorsements were available for you to review?  Personally, I’m much more likely to spend my money on a product with evidence to back it up.  Video is a useful tool to provide this credibility.

For example, you can ask customers to send in video testimonials, create a contest out of it to make it more fun.  Now it’s both a marketing campaign and an excellent credibility tool.  You can also take the time to visit some of your biggest fans and record testimonials.  Case studies and success stories are extremely motivational. They enable your prospective customer to not only see how successful they can be but to also connect with your customer on a personal level.  Speaking of connecting with your customer on a personal level, let’s move to the next great way to use video.

3.  Video welcome message.

Many businesses are enhanced by connecting on a personal level with your customer.  For example, if you’re selling a consulting service, a coaching service, or any type of product or service that helps people improve their personal lives, it can be extremely beneficial to share some of yourself  with them.  An easy way to do this is to connect with them via a video welcome          message.

It doesn’t have to be long, just a 60 second spot where you’re sincerely welcoming them to your site and inviting them to take the steps they need to improve their lives.  It provides reassurance that you’re a real and genuine person and encourages them to take the next step whether that is to make a purchase, make an appointment or simply to inquire and ask for more information.

4. Interview an expert.
    
Interviewing an expert is an excellent tool to draw traffic to your website.  You can offer the interview as a free giveaway in exchange for their email address. You can promote the interview as a limited time offer when they make a purchase.  You can simply use the interview with an expert as a way to improve your company’s credibility.  There are many, many uses for a video interview with an expert.  You can even use a portion of it to create a video advertisement.

5. Create an advertisement.
    
Advertising is a great way to market your business and video makes it easy.  You can create an ad and post it on YouTube.  You can also create a You Tube video and embed it on your site or pay others to post it on their site.  When creating a video advertisement, there are a few things that sell well.  They are:

· Humor.
· Talent
· Celebrities
· Special effects
· Animal/pet tricks
· Cute kids
· Spoofs

The key to any advertisement is to make sure it is both memorable, unique, and that it communicates the benefits of your product.  A good video advertisement will be forwarded and shared amongst fans thus generating a viral effect.

Videos must be quality or they will hurt your image rather than enhance it.  There are numerous tools available on the web to create quality videos.  YouTube is one of the most commonly used.  This is because it is fairly simple to use.

The steps to create a YouTube video are:

To first make your video.  In order for your video to be viewable via YouTube, it video has to be taken with a digital device like a digital camcorder, a digital camera, or a cell phone.  I’ve taken movies of my dog with my cell phone and depending on your cell phone’s camera, they can be very good quality.

To upload it from a digital camera or camcorder, it is important to know that any video uploaded into YouTube must be less than 10 minutes long, smaller than 100MB, and in an acceptable format, .AVI, .MOV, .WMV, and .MPG file formats.

Once you have your video in the right format, simply get online and go to the YouTube site.  Click “Upload Videos” in the upper-right-hand corner of the page and enter the video’s title, description, tags, and category to make it easy for people to find your video, and forward to others.  Set your video to Public Click the “Upload a Video” button and then select the file you want to upload by clicking the “Browse” button.

That’s it. You have now created a highly interactive and viral marketing tool that you can use to build your business.

DCincome.com Learn what most chiropractors will never know about getting 5-10 New Patients per month from Facebook chiropractic marketing. – Matthew Loop DC Facebook chiropractic marketing Facebook Marketing for Chiropractors chiropractic Facebook marketing chiropractic marketing dcincome social media marketing for chiropractors

I want to introduct something about 2. 1 Motorcycle Stereo Surround System. This audio system is design specific for scooter, motorcycle or yacht. 2. 1 channel system with 3 water resistance speakers, volume control system patent pending, battery level indicator, power source 12 volts, front speaker 6w 6w output, subwoofer 16 watts output, bass volume control, volume control, surround on / off, MP3 and radio input, audio output for wireless FM transmitter, bios drive’s MP3 system is suitable for working in harsh enviroment
Lou Miami (19561995) was a punk musician based in Boston. His group, The Kozmetix, was popular on the local scene and released two EPs. He combined a rough punk sound with a glam-influenced choice of clothing.
As was typical for many punk bands at the time, the Kozmetix regularly played at The Rathskeller (the Rat), the Channel, Jonathan Swifts, Cantones, and Spit as well as NYC haunts such as the Peppermint Lounge and the old Living Room in Providence RI.
Lou Miami and the Kosmetix also regularly played the Inn Square Mens Bar in Inman Square, Sommerville. Many Harvard Law students of that era proved to be among Lou’s biggest fans, including Mike Ermer (later a partner at a major international law firm) and Kevin Johnson, now (surprisingly enough) the dean of a top 30 law school. In 1983, Lou Miami and Kevin Johnson finally met and discussed the music scene in San Francisco. In an encore, Miami blurted out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE” in the middle of some kind of rendition of “To Sir With Love.” The crowd went wild.
On The Kozmetix, Miami was the lead singer, Jack Rootoo played lead guitar, H.P. (aka Helen Privett) bass, Dolores Paradise organ, and Laural Blanchard drums.
During the band’s touring years of 1979-1981 the Kozmetix line up was Lou Miami on vocals, Jack Rootoo guitar, Bill Norcott on bass and Melody Chisholm on drums. Bill and Melody came to the Kozmetix from their previous band Phobia. This lineup of the band had a regular Monday night gig at Cantones for two years as well as appearing at numerous clubs in the Boston area. The group was managed by Joan Martin.
In a clever bit of marketing, their first 45, with “Fascist Lover” on the A side and “To Sir with Love” on the B, was sold not in a typical paper cover but in a white plastic cosmetics bag that mimicked the Lord & Taylor shopping bag. It contained the memorable line “A fascist lover made my mother and then my mother made me!”. Their LP Lou Miami & The Kozmetix was produced by Ann Prim and Karen Kirby both from the Boston band November Group.
Videos
His cover of the song “One Years from Today” was done in a [retro]] style, imitating the voice and music of singers from the 1920s.
The Kozmetix’ Makeup
On Rituals: Lou, lead singer; Jack Rootoo, lead guitar; H.P., bass guitar; Laurel Blanchard, drums; Toby Ingalls, rhythm guitars. Additional musicians: Chris Spedding,- guitars; Kristi Rose, vocals.
Jack Rootoo (aka Richard “Rick” Galivan) passed away in MA on June 13th, 2008. Lou Miami pre-deceased Jack Rootoo in Los Angeles, 1995.
Equipment
In the Miami/Rootoo/Norcott/Chisholm lineup of the Kozmetix they used the following equipment:
Jack: 1979 Gibson “The Paul” guitar through a 50 watt Marshall tube combo amp
Bill: 1978 Ibanez Musician bass through a 1969 Sunn Coliseum bass amp head and a Cerwin Vega 18″ cabinet.
Melody: Ludwig drum kit with Ziljian symbols
Discography
EPs
Lou Miami & the Cosmetics (1982)
Rituals (1985)
45s
“Facsist Lover” and “To Sir With Love”
“Monster Mash”
“Dance with Death”
“Fight Fire with Fire”
External links
Photo
Fan Page
Categories: American New Wave musical groups | New Wave groups | 1980s music groups | Musical groups from Boston, Massachusetts(and so on) To get More information , you can visit some products about heat massager, oil paint brushes, . The 2. 1 Motorcycle Stereo Surround System products should be show more here!

www.kershmedia.co.uk Kent based Social Media Marketing agency and Online Video Marketing agency Kersh Media, offer new media marketing, online media marketing, Facebook marketing, video marketing and video content production. We will help your business or organisation develop a social media marketing strategy using Facebook groups and other relevent social media networks. And we’ll help you with social media marketing services. We are based in Kent close to London.To find out more about our social media marketing services and video production services and how our professional video can help your business, then please contact us today.contact us today.

Facebook, twitter, linked-in, You-Tube, hulu and more.  That’s enough acronyms to start a whole new language subset!  At the end of the day, one thing is certain, Social Media and Nonprofits are like hand and glove.  They just go together.  But, as most directors would agree, there is one thing Nonprofits universally have in common…

Most Nonprofit Organizations have a need to raise funds and financial support on a regular basis.  As economic unrest grips the nation, Nonprofit Organizations need to be more savvy about how and when to seize the opportunity to solicit support from its loyal constituents. Social Media is a perfect vehicle to deliver that message. This article offers 5 unique and easy to follow fundraising tips for Nonprofit Organizations who are or will soon be using Social Media.

TIP#1 – Create A Facebook Donation Page
Create a Custom Donation Page on facebook.  Facebooks ever evolving fan page system has made it possible to virtually set up a fully functioning website on facebook.  Your Nonprofit should be maximizing this cost free tool with the potential to reach 300 Million subscribers with your unique message. You can even accept straight out donations via PayPal or other cost effective payment gateway solutions.

TIP#2-Cross Promote your Campaigns
Take your message to the masses across multiple Social Media networks, simultaneously.  There are literally dozens of cost free options for setting up and operating a Dashboard Control panel that will post like information across all of your social networks.  Do your research and look for the options that best fit your needs.  I personally use Hootsuite.com and am quite pleased with the ease of use and the results I’ve gotten.  The system even incorporates its own click tracking and metrics reports.

TIP#3-Create Strategic Business Partnerships
As a Nonprofit Organization, if you have or ever intend to accept corporate funds or sponsorships of any kind, Social Media can be one of the most powerful weapons in your online marketing arsenal.  By creating and Co-Branding unique and innovative marketing campaigns with your benefactors, you can establish a real strategic partnership relationship that can last for years with minimal effort needed to maintain it. This also creates an alignment of business goals between your organizations, which also strengthens the partnership in the long run.

TIP#4 – Post Regularly About Special Needs
If your Nonprofit Organization is having a benefit concert for the people of Haiti, or if you are knee deep in the middle of a clothes drives and are looking for specific items, Social Media can be an effective way to get the word out quickly.  Generally, people want to help and the easier your organization makes it for them, the more likely they are to offer it.  

TIP#5 – Create A Recurring Fundraising Campaign
One of the easiest fundraising and most important tactic are recurring support campaigns.  Create a campaign that offers your community away to provide their ongoing support through subscription or regular offering programs.  Use Social Media as your main launch pad.  Perhaps they can adopt a community park, or special garden.  Perhaps they can choose a specific family in need to help support.  Social Media provides an open canvass of ideas for possible connections with your community for al kinds of support.

The closer the relationship you choose to have with your audience the more valuable it will be.  Long term relationships always prove to be win-win scenarios.  Aim to establish genuine dialogue with your community. Gauge their interests and respond accordingly with clever and concise information about the topics they care about most.  These are your loyal constituents.  You can direct the kind of relationship they have with your firm. Make a great one!

7 Steps to Generate Massive Online Buzz

Can you remember a time when you were with your friends or family and you saw something on TV that was directly related to something you or your company produced?  Can you remember the feeling of pride that overtook you?

Well I can.

We created a website for one of our clients that had several lead generation tools built in.  These tools provided a huge benefit to the site’s visitors and ended up generating so many leads the company decided to shift their marketing budget almost entirely to the web.  When we heard this news we were really happy to hear how our plans were delivering such excellent results.

Then it happened…..

I was watching a Detroit Tiger’s game with my wife and was heading to the kitchen during a commercial break when I stopped dead in my tracks.  I looked at the TV screen  on my way through and saw the website we had created on the screen.  The entire commercial was talking about how the viewers could visit the website address and use the tools to improve their situation.

WOW! I was so excited to see our work being featured on TV… even if it was only a commercial.

I am sure you’ve had similar experiences where you proudly stated, “my company did that for them” or “hey, that’s my company they’re talking about!”

How would you like to re-create that same experience over and over?

Well you can!

The following are seven steps you can follow to generate as much buzz as you’d like to.  The title of this article is a bit deceiving since it only addresses “Online Buzz.”  The beauty of the Internet is it has expanded far beyond simply online.  With web 2.0 and social media invading our personal lives, the buzz completely transcends the Internet.

Step One: Create a Compelling Story

I’ve heard the saying, “Words tell, but stories sell” at least a million times but, until recently, I didn’t realize how true it is.  If you simply look at the psychology of a sale, you’ll realize the most important part of making a sale is when you make a connection with your prospect.  When you do, they realize you understand them and what they need.

Think about the last time a sales person was telling you a story and it sounded exactly like your situation.

I am sure you immediately let your guard down and felt a close connection with that person.

I am not telling you to make up stories.  People have pretty good BS meters and if you’re making something up, they’ll detect it in a heartbeat, and you’ll ruin any chances of developing a relationship with them EVER!

Make sure you stay in touch with your customers after the sale to monitor the results they receive from your product offering.  This isn’t just good business practice, it will also give you success stories you can use to relate to each of your buyer personas.  That is as long as you are producing success stories!

If you’re launching a new product, or you’re working on spreading the word about an incredible success story you’ve produced, it’s important to keep your audience in the loop. If you create a compelling story, you’ll have people anxiously waiting for the next chapter.

Step Two: Ask for Input

You should value feedback from your buyers above everything else.  The only way to build a successful business is to understand what your buyers want, and then give it to them. There is no better way of getting to know what your buyers want, then asking them.

If you are thinking about a new product roll out, or want to know an area your buyers could use your help, ask them!

If you can weave these responses into your story, you’ll find you can make a much bigger connection with your prospective customers since they’ll see how hard you work  to ensure their wants and needs are met.

Once you’ve created your story it’s important to spread it throughout the Internet in different places.  It can be similar to an information scavenger hunt except, you’ll be leading them from place to place to get the next piece of the story.

Step Three: Blogging

Every company should have a blog for their company. I know, I know, you don’t have the time to blog and don’t think anyone cares about your day to day adventures anyhow.

Well, you are wrong on both counts.  It only takes a few minutes to jot down your thoughts in your blog each day, and you’d be amazed at how long your buyers or potential buyers will follow what you publish.  They may read your blog for months before initiating the first contact.

It’s even easier to have content for your blog entry if you’ve crafted your story ahead of time.  You can use these blog posts to tell pieces of the story along the way.

Step Four: You Tube

Everyone prefers to consume information differently.  There are some people who don’t have the time or patience to read through paragraphs of content.   Although it may only take them 3 minutes to read, they’d rather spend 10-15 minutes watching a video on YouTube.com. I’m quite sure this includes many of your clients.

If you can create video testimonials with clients who are part of the story you have created, you’ll gain instant credibility.  Putting these videos on You Tube will create yet another opportunity for your potential buyers to find you.  You’d be amazed how many people include YouTube.com in their repertoire of searching for a potential solution.

Step Five: Online News Releases

The old days of having to wine and dine journalists to get them to write a story about you is over.  We now have the ability to craft our own news and have that story  reach millions of people  immediately, with online news release services.  The story doesn’t have to be some earth shattering news, but does need to be compelling if you want it to be well received.

There are several online news release services out there.  Some of these services are free and others have a nominal fee associated with them.  I personally recommend PR Web since we’ve received excellent results with their service.

Step Six: Article Writing

An excellent way to get your story out is through a series of topical articles.  When you are writing these articles make sure you write them as though you are communicating with one of your buyer personas directly and focus on the benefits they’d like to receive.

Every company should engage in writing articles to showcase your expertise and help differentiate yourself from the competition.  This will also help increase the content on your website and increase the likelihood your potential buyers will find you.

Step Seven: Social Media

Last but not least.  It doesn’t matter whether you choose Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or another social media site as your primary means of expanding your contact base.

You just need to be doing something!

Facebook just reached the 200,000,000 subscriber mark, which means, if it were a country it would be the fifth largest on earth!  There are a number of ways to spread your story though social media sites.  You can start fan pages, join groups, share photos and videos, keep people updated on your status, or simply use it to keep a grasp on what’s most important to your potential buyers.

If you follow these steps and apply these tactics, you can create an incredible buzz online in less than 30 days.

Make sure you aren’t simply creating buzz for the sake of creating buzz.  Take the time to create a detailed plan so you can capitalize on the traffic this awareness creates.

7 Steps to Generate Massive Online Buzz

Can you remember a time when you were with your friends or family and you saw something on TV that was directly related to something you or your company produced?  Can you remember the feeling of pride that overtook you?

Well I can.

We created a website for one of our clients that had several lead generation tools built in.  These tools provided a huge benefit to the site’s visitors and ended up generating so many leads the company decided to shift their marketing budget almost entirely to the web.  When we heard this news we were really happy to hear how our plans were delivering such excellent results.

Then it happened…..

I was watching a Detroit Tiger’s game with my wife and was heading to the kitchen during a commercial break when I stopped dead in my tracks.  I looked at the TV screen  on my way through and saw the website we had created on the screen.  The entire commercial was talking about how the viewers could visit the website address and use the tools to improve their situation.

WOW! I was so excited to see our work being featured on TV… even if it was only a commercial.

I am sure you’ve had similar experiences where you proudly stated, “my company did that for them” or “hey, that’s my company they’re talking about!”

How would you like to re-create that same experience over and over?

Well you can!

The following are seven steps you can follow to generate as much buzz as you’d like to.  The title of this article is a bit deceiving since it only addresses “Online Buzz.”  The beauty of the Internet is it has expanded far beyond simply online.  With web 2.0 and social media invading our personal lives, the buzz completely transcends the Internet.

Step One: Create a Compelling Story

I’ve heard the saying, “Words tell, but stories sell” at least a million times but, until recently, I didn’t realize how true it is.  If you simply look at the psychology of a sale, you’ll realize the most important part of making a sale is when you make a connection with your prospect.  When you do, they realize you understand them and what they need.

Think about the last time a sales person was telling you a story and it sounded exactly like your situation.

I am sure you immediately let your guard down and felt a close connection with that person.

I am not telling you to make up stories.  People have pretty good BS meters and if you’re making something up, they’ll detect it in a heartbeat, and you’ll ruin any chances of developing a relationship with them EVER!

Make sure you stay in touch with your customers after the sale to monitor the results they receive from your product offering.  This isn’t just good business practice, it will also give you success stories you can use to relate to each of your buyer personas.  That is as long as you are producing success stories!

If you’re launching a new product, or you’re working on spreading the word about an incredible success story you’ve produced, it’s important to keep your audience in the loop. If you create a compelling story, you’ll have people anxiously waiting for the next chapter.

Step Two: Ask for Input

You should value feedback from your buyers above everything else.  The only way to build a successful business is to understand what your buyers want, and then give it to them. There is no better way of getting to know what your buyers want, then asking them.

If you are thinking about a new product roll out, or want to know an area your buyers could use your help, ask them!

If you can weave these responses into your story, you’ll find you can make a much bigger connection with your prospective customers since they’ll see how hard you work  to ensure their wants and needs are met.

Once you’ve created your story it’s important to spread it throughout the Internet in different places.  It can be similar to an information scavenger hunt except, you’ll be leading them from place to place to get the next piece of the story.

Step Three: Blogging

Every company should have a blog for their company. I know, I know, you don’t have the time to blog and don’t think anyone cares about your day to day adventures anyhow.

Well, you are wrong on both counts.  It only takes a few minutes to jot down your thoughts in your blog each day, and you’d be amazed at how long your buyers or potential buyers will follow what you publish.  They may read your blog for months before initiating the first contact.

It’s even easier to have content for your blog entry if you’ve crafted your story ahead of time.  You can use these blog posts to tell pieces of the story along the way.

Step Four: You Tube

Everyone prefers to consume information differently.  There are some people who don’t have the time or patience to read through paragraphs of content.   Although it may only take them 3 minutes to read, they’d rather spend 10-15 minutes watching a video on YouTube.com. I’m quite sure this includes many of your clients.

If you can create video testimonials with clients who are part of the story you have created, you’ll gain instant credibility.  Putting these videos on You Tube will create yet another opportunity for your potential buyers to find you.  You’d be amazed how many people include YouTube.com in their repertoire of searching for a potential solution.

Step Five: Online News Releases

The old days of having to wine and dine journalists to get them to write a story about you is over.  We now have the ability to craft our own news and have that story  reach millions of people  immediately, with online news release services.  The story doesn’t have to be some earth shattering news, but does need to be compelling if you want it to be well received.

There are several online news release services out there.  Some of these services are free and others have a nominal fee associated with them.  I personally recommend PR Web since we’ve received excellent results with their service.

Step Six: Article Writing

An excellent way to get your story out is through a series of topical articles.  When you are writing these articles make sure you write them as though you are communicating with one of your buyer personas directly and focus on the benefits they’d like to receive.

Every company should engage in writing articles to showcase your expertise and help differentiate yourself from the competition.  This will also help increase the content on your website and increase the likelihood your potential buyers will find you.

Step Seven: Social Media

Last but not least.  It doesn’t matter whether you choose Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or another social media site as your primary means of expanding your contact base.

You just need to be doing something!

Facebook just reached the 200,000,000 subscriber mark, which means, if it were a country it would be the fifth largest on earth!  There are a number of ways to spread your story though social media sites.  You can start fan pages, join groups, share photos and videos, keep people updated on your status, or simply use it to keep a grasp on what’s most important to your potential buyers.

If you follow these steps and apply these tactics, you can create an incredible buzz online in less than 30 days.

Make sure you aren’t simply creating buzz for the sake of creating buzz.  Take the time to create a detailed plan so you can capitalize on the traffic this awareness creates.

www.MyPrivateClassroom.com A case study of a common Facebook Marketing Mistake

Change; we hear a lot about change today. President Barak Obama spoke widely of change in his lead up to the presidency and as we now know, it was his mission statement and attitude towards his governance of the USA. Amidst political rhetoric, there was change on another scale that was taking place right through the political campaign. Politicians are known for their vast budgets during their campaigns and there was none greater than this. The Obama political campaign not only topped budgets but there was a change far greater in their approach to the campaign itself. This political campaign was the first ever US presidential campaign that targeted internet marketing unlike ever seen before. Some speculate that the personal one-to-one nature of the internet marketing campaigns were part of the driving force in the Obama victory.

Change; there is great change taking place in the internet marketing domain unlike ever seen before. On average a person is hit with over 2000 sales or marketing messages each day. This is almost too much to contain when you think about it. Telemarketing, trade shows, seminars, direct mail / response, TV ads, news paper ads, banners, billboards, etc. clutter our lives so much that meaningful messages are often diluted or drowned in this ocean of messages. The marketing and public relations domains are hard pressed these days to come up with penetrating ad content that reach their target audience. The great change we notice taking place in the internet marketing domain today deals with a concept termed inbound marketing. This strategy deals with the concept of being found by consumers rather than pursuing and hitting consumers with marketing messages.

The concept of being found is like a tropical bird that flutters colourful feathers and dances to a beautiful beat in the hope that its partners hear them and advance in their direction. Being found is all about developing an expert opinion in your industry and attracting visitors naturally to your sites. The concept of being found needs to be applied meticulously as one can imagine, there are plenty of birds making plenty of noise in the jungle.

Being found entails trying to understand who you are trying to attract in the first place. What is the marketing persona i.e. your target market? If you are a hotel based in Leicester Square in London, UK then your target market could be tourists visiting London looking for a central location to stay; or the theatre market with so many production shows in close proximity; or even perhaps the younger tourist club goers catered for in the region.

Marketing for being found in the internet domain carries two basic ground rules – content and engagement.

Without content there is very little value to the consumers you want to bring on to your site. Content could be in the form of a blog site, articles, reports, white papers, press releases, eBooks or useful snippets of information. The critical characteristic of the content should be that it is useful and interesting to the target market. Content is absolutely critical. Let us explore some of these content tools.

Blogging for business is one of the simplest forms of creating content. It is short and if interesting could hold an audience captive. It is important to not only blog about who you are but more so the wider context of your services and products. Consumers are savvy. They know when a business blogs for the purpose of profit. They are not interested in subscribing to product descriptions. They seek unique value. A hotel near Darling Harbor in Sydney, Australia could capture a wider audience by talking about the happenings in its surrounds. For example speaking about tours from the harbor, the opening of the Lindt café close by, the Sydney aquarium and updates on its seal population. Perhaps if one is targeting the Japanese market, the mention of the Sydney Fish Market being in walking distance to Darling Harbor and providing some of the freshest seafood in the world would provide that edge i.e. that unique bit of knowledge which makes subscribing to your blog worthwhile and a true value addition. The key is to make content interesting, non commercial and more so viral in its nature.

Article writing campaigns add tremendous value to your site by the exposure they provide your site through their numerous channels of distribution. They also add fabulous SEO value to your site. eBooks are useful when given out free due the viral nature of the product i.e. people love to share free things especially if its current and interesting.

Speaking of SEO it is critical that the content we spoke of previously follows strict SEO guidelines. SEO is not as complicated as many people make it sound. SEO takes time and it is not a miracle strategy that promises immediate results. It takes time. Once you get your head around that concept it is not that complicated. It involves for the most part using the appropriate keywords i.e. words that your target market are likely to type on search engines in order to find you. A powerful set of keywords used in attractive content is a key step to SEO. Building links is possibly even more important. That is the same as asking other sites or blogs to hold your web link on their URLs. That basically counts as a vote for your site. The more votes you have the more important Google or Bing think you are and the more SEO value you hold. The more SEO value you hold the higher up the search engine results your go. Of course SEO experts would also say that your web URL, titles, descriptions, the use of ALT text, anchor text and the listing of your sites on search engines such as Google or Bing are important and they are indeed. However instead of trying to trick search engines I think what most companies or businesses should do is to try and focus on the most significant element of SEO – content and votes. The more interesting your content and its significance to your target market and other sites, the more likely you are to attract more visitors to your sites.

As much as content is important to the strategy of being found, it is pointless unless the businesses engages with its consumers. The internet has made the lives of marketers simpler and more resourceful. Never before have sales and marketing teams ever been able to engage directly with so many consumers (millions!) using such simple tools. The internet has become social. There are watering holes in every savannah and it is up to marketers to try and find them. Watering holes are where your customers or target market gather. Where the elephants, buffalo and giraffes gather to drink water is where you want to be if you are trying to sell the latest and tastiest varieties of green herbal delights. Social media platforms have made engaging consumers even simpler. Engagement need not be complex but it can turn out to be lifestyle marketing. Hanging around where your consumers hang around to talk is an age old theory. For example where would you hang around in ancient Israel to discuss the latest news – the Synagogues; or where would you go to in old London to discuss politics and trends – Speaker’s Corner. I am sure you understand what I am saying. The internet has made news sharing and discussions even simpler. There are more watering holes available today than any great African grassland holds. Blogs, Google Forums, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, Linked In groups, Facebook Fan pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, You Tube, Hi5 and MySpace are all watering holes where consumers gather. It is up to you to listen out for topics of interest and engage consumers; or even start new conversations. Do not be blunt, nobody likes a salesman pushing products where value addition is sought after. Always remember to focus on adding value. Make sure your consumers see the value addition and seek out your product rather than have your product pushed at them.

Forums are abundant today. I contribute to and edit a blog spot named www.StrengthTrainingChronicles.com  which engages weights trainers, rugby enthusiasts and gym goers with useful material. In order to engage with my consumers and discuss / learn new trends I Google searched Forums for such watering holes.  The results I received were unmanageable. From specific community / social web sites such as bodybuilding.com to countless numbers of forums focusing on varying aspects of the sport the research results were too many to count. Results ranged from geographic variations from London to LA and sport niches from StrongMan competitions to Nutrition. Finding watering holes is simple. Communicating with your consumers and adding value is what will bring more consumers to your site. This is public relations campaigning and brand building as never witnessed before.

Bringing guests to your home is wonderful for most of the time. But do you let the kids play around the vases or bring the movie crowd into the garden? Having a specific landing page is essential. This welcomes your target market to a target web page. Once found, visitors must be made into leads. Leads are people interested in listening to you about your product or service. Leads must be then converted into sales. Leads sometimes take time and need to be nurtured with emails or promotions together with calls to action   

If it cannot be measured it cannot be managed. Being found must be quantified in order to determine if you are being found to begin with and by the right consumers. There are so many companies that have gone bankrupt in 2009 by paying little attention to ROI (returns on investment) or budgeting their use of internet marketing. ROI is all about making the decision if your course of marketing action was worth it or not. It is important to make note of the number of visitors to your site, the ratios of lookers to bookers and the ratios of those moving onto your landing page and then entering their email information onto forms. These figures are particularly useful when gauging a new marketing tool you have employed such as engaging a certain forum or a press release or article. Google Analytics and other tools make these functions simple.

We spoke of change in the beginning and there is great change in the horizon. We are seeing a convergence of web design companies, sales, marketing, advertising agencies and public relations into one company focused on being found via inbound marketing. The days of effective TV, Radio and advertisements on magazines are shrinking as the number of ads clutter useful listenable messaging. Meaningful, attractive and lucrative value addition to any business via inbound marketing and being found is set to make waves of change in the world of marketing as the internet becomes a necessity for business.

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