The Reciprocal Consulting Blog

The Wall Street Journal tells the tale of two businesses that are losing their shirts due to the recent Google algorithm change. The problem is they were a doing a lot of things “right.” That is, the way that online marketers have been doing them for years.

Yet, one of them admits that he did buy some links. That alone could have affected his business.

Article marketing, however, has been a mainstay of Internet marketing since the very first days of the Internet. Still, read a few of the articles in the popular article directories and you’ll see why Google saw the need for an algorithm change. A lot of the recent discounted links and content are low quality articles in these directories. And they’re promoting legitimate businesses.

If you are a small business owner, you have to be careful where you get your online marketing advice. There are still companies touting the old ways of doing things – the way they’ve always been done.

You can’t do things the way they’ve always been done. Not any more. Today, your online marketing has to be as unique as your website. Your content needs to be original, your links natural, and your publishing credits diverse. You should get your message in front of your audience, wherever your audience is, rather than relying on sites like EzineArticles and Squidoo.

I’m not saying you should abandon these websites, but here’s the bottom line:

If you’ve heard of link diversity, you should also try a little content diversity. It’s the new way of marketing online that businesses should have been doing all along.

Some Internet marketing tactics are timeless – they will always work. You may do them poorly and in that case they may not work. But if you do them well, then they will work.

Here are 6 Internet marketing tactics that worked when they were first used, work today, and will work until the technology on which they are based dies.

1. E-mail marketing – Whether you send newsletters, e-brochures, or product giveaway postcards, e-mail marketing is a marketing tactic that simply works. Anyone can do it.
2. Blogging – Blogging not only is a great marketing tactic, it’s good for SEO. That may be why it will always work.
3. Social networking – Social networking can take many forms. In the past it was known as forum marketing or bulletin boards. Today, it’s just simply social networking. But no matter the form, if it involves socializing (even online), then it will work. Networking is networking.
4. Word of mouth – Word of mouth always works. Online and off line. Online, word of mouth takes shape in the share icons you put on your pages. You do put them on your web pages, don’t you?
5. Visual imagery – TV advertising is still alive and well. Online, it’s called video marketing. Yes, it works just as well as TV advertising.
6. Paid advertising – Free advertising is great, but it may or may not work depending on the venue. Paid advertising works. Off line, print newspapers and magazines offer display ads for your dollars and boy do they work. Online, PPC is the best paid advertising you can get. It’s the equivalent of your hometown newspaper ad.

There’s no question about it. These online marketing tactics work. They always have and they always will.

Is it getting more difficult to market a business online? I can see how a business owner would think so. There is so much to think about. You have to build a website, then you have to promote your website. You have to come up with a search engine marketing strategy, perhaps a pay-per-click advertising strategy, and put together a social media marketing plan. You may need a video marketing plan, an e-mail marketing plan, and even a display advertising plan in some niches. There really is a lot to think about.

While there is a lot to think about when you embark upon an Internet marketing venture, it isn’t as difficult as it seems. There are some things that are actually easier online than off line. For instance, there is a lot that you can measure online that measuring off line is unheard of.

Still, it helps to have a plan.

A good Internet marketing plan starts with research. In your research you should include some time to study your competition. Learn what the movers in your niche are up to. Not that you’ll follow them, but it helps to know what others have done and are doing in your industry. You may find some things that you like that you want to emulate while tossing out other strategies that don’t fit in with your goals and mission.

When you start with research you will eliminate a lot of your options. Taking items off the table that don’t belong there is a good way to narrow your focus and research can help you do that. Build your online marketing plan on solid research and it gets easier. A lot easier in most cases.

Wordstream has a colorful, and very helpful, infographic that shows the best of the best Internet marketing tools in 10 different categories. Specifically, the categories addressed are:

• Web analytics
• Social media management
• Content marketing and blogging
• Search engine optimization
• Pay-per-click marketing
• Marketing automation
• Video hosting management
• Conversion rate optimization
• Crowdsourcing
• E-mail marketing

You’d think a company putting together that kind of list would include only paid services in hopes they might earn some affiliate money, but that’s not the case. Some of the marketing tools are actually free. Many of them, in fact.

Among the free Internet marketing tools that made the list are Google Analytics, HootSuite, WordPress, Joomla, Google Webmaster Tools, Vimeo, WordWatch, Google Website Optimizer, evly, NetProspex, and several others. There is at least one free service under each of the above 10 product categories.

So, what’s it mean?

If you’re savvy with your investment dollars you can run your online business using all free tools.

While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with every service on the list as I’d probably add some tools that aren’t on the list, but I will say that the infographic gives a good visual representation of some tools that are available for startups. But if you really want to shine and get your service the recognition it deserves, you’ll still have to spend some money on content creation.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to run your business online. You can find awesome Internet marketing tools for free, and most of these have value added services that you can pay for as your business grows.

A lot has been said of marketing toward particular segments of the population and that includes the differences between the generational segments. For instance, if you are marketing products and services toward Baby Boomers, then you would position your brand differently than if you were marketing toward Millennials (younger people between 18 and 34).

But is there any validity to this marketing argument?

I think it depends on the product and service. Obviously, some products appeal to older populations that younger people aren’t going to be interested in. An AARP membership, for instance.

But what about generic products or products that cross generational lines in terms of interest and usability?

I think the key is to outline the benefits of your product for the consumer. Maybe older people are looking for a different benefit than younger people when it comes to your product. Maybe not. The key to any marketing – even online marketing – is to sell the benefits of the product or service. The question is, How?

If you have different market segments that seek different benefits for the same product, then it might be prudent to target them separately the same way that marketers in the TV and print advertising age have done. In that case, you might build two separate websites and focus optimizing them for the right keywords for each market. Then use the right social media sites to drive traffic and make connections based on the market.

Market segmentation is nothing new. Online, however, it might take on a different flavor. Think about it in terms of benefit for each segment and you can’t go wrong.

Content marketing is the best way to reach your market today. In fact, it’s really the only way. You’re either effective at it or you’re not. But where do you publish your content?

Here is a list of 12 essential content marketing channels for your online content. Use as many as you have time to manage.

1. Pinterest – Pinterest is the new kid on the block, but if you have graphics on any of your Web properties, then it’s a great channel to incorporate into your marketing plan.
2. Tumblr – Tumblr, too, is highly graphic in nature, but unlike Pinterest it is also very textual. You can incorporate your best graphics with textual content and build a community around your content pretty doggone fast.
3. Blogger – Blogger is the original blogging platform. While it hasn’t changed much over the years, it has gotten better.
4. WordPress – This competitor to Blogger is another platform you should incorporate into your content marketing strategy.
5. Your own domain – Your blog and website at your own domain name is the best content marketing channel you have. Don’t abandon it or, for goodness sake, forget about it.
6. YouTube – If you have video content or you’ve been thinking about producing video content, then you should have a YouTube channel.
7. Twitter – You can actually say a lot in 140 characters, and drive tons of traffic.
8. Facebook – Connect with old friends and make new ones. Build a page for your brand. But don’t stop there. It’s the most trafficked website in the world.
9. HubPages – Build your own hubs and monetize, plus drive traffic to your own web pages with solid, original content.
10. Squidoo – Create lenses on any topic in which you are an expert, and point your links back to your website. It’s the perfect marketing channel.
11. LinkedIn – Meet other business people, ask questions about your topics of interest, answer some, and make connections for life.
12. Quora – If you are an expert on any subject in the world, Quora is the place to prove it.

Now that you know the 12 essential content marketing channels, what are you going to do about them?

SEOmoz posted an interesting take on Google Places yesterday. The gist of the article tells how some local businesses have had their Google Places listing disappear because they don’t actually service customers at their location. That’s a slap in the face to many home-based businesses. It could happen to you.

Thankfully the article tells how to avoid that fate. Dare I let the cat out of the bag?

OK, you talked me into it. The key is to hide your local address. Yes, hide it. As in, make it invisible.

That could very well diminish your local search results, but if your Google Places listing is de-activated, then that will happen anyway.

Casting aside any temptation to make Google look like a bad guy, I’d like to instead ask you a question. Do you really need a Google Places listing? If you do any business locally, then I’d say you should have one. But is it the end of the world if your address isn’t visible? Do you really think it will make or break your local business?

With all the marketing channels available to small businesses today, I wouldn’t fret over one channel. You have to figure out how many of your local prospects would actually visit your Google Places listing. If your business is rural, it may not be that many. On the other hand, if you operate in a large metropolitan area, it could be much higher.

Like any marketing channel, you must ask yourself how important it is to your business. Then, act accordingly.

Inbound marketing is a phrase that refers to the process that online marketers use to find prospects for their businesses. It utilizes informational content that is published in various media including blogs, social media, articles, and web pages. The idea is to attract prospects through a variety of channels that appeal to their interests rather than focusing on begging or buying their attention through direct advertising or interrupting them to make a sales pitch.

As more and more people go online to play on Facebook or search for information – even build a website for their business – they are coming into contact with this term “inbound marketing.”

The whole point is to provide information that people are searching for. That information should help them in some way. When it does, the searcher makes a point to return to the source of information for more great content on their topic of interest. As they come to recognize you as an expert in that area, they learn to trust you. Then they are more willing to do business with you.

Two questions: 1) Does it work; and 2) is it on the rise?

To answer the first question, Yes. It does work. In fact, it’s worked for the past 20 years. Inbound marketing is the wave of the future.

Now, for the second question. Is inbound marketing on the rise? I believe it is. More and more, small businesses and other online marketers are discovering that producing quality content that attracts searchers and prospective customers is leading to conversions. In fact, those conversions end up being more profitable and lead to longer relationships with customers. It’s one more reason to start your own inbound marketing strategy.

One question that any small business owner must ask him or herself when embarking upon an Internet marketing strategy is this, Should I stick only with Internet marketing or use it as an adjunct to my other marketing efforts?

I think the answer depends on your own circumstances and goals.

If your business is an Internet-only business, then Internet marketing as a standalone strategy might be the way to go. However, if your business is a local retail shop, then you definitely want to do some off line marketing within your community.

Marketing is not a zero-sum game. It’s also not an exact science. You have to do some experimenting and see what works for you.

But when you start experimenting with online marketing techniques, it helps if you spend some time studying what others have done before you. Not that you have to copy everything that’s been done before, but if you are going to try something different, then you need to know why you are veering from the acceptable norms. That’s true in any profession.

For most businesses, Internet marketing strategies make for good adjuncts to whatever else you are already doing. I’d say it’s a rare situation where you would completely replace your traditional marketing with Internet marketing.

The challenge for most businesses to decide is what mix of Internet marketing you want to accomplish and what mix of the traditional you will incorporate.

Once you decide on your total marketing plan, then you implement it. Get aggressive with whatever strategies you decide to employ.

I’m guessing Stacy Green coined the acronym P.O.E.M. I Googled it and got no results. She published her post introducing the acronym just four hours ago.

So what does it mean?

P.O.E.M. is an acronym that stands for Paid, Owned, Earned Media. We’re talking about content here.

I think it’s a useful acronym, especially for businesses that are accustomed to developing public relations campaigns for print and offline media. You can take this acronym and use it for offline, or digital media.

• Paid – This refers to pay per click advertising, in-text paid links, banner advertising, and other forms of online media that you pay for. Do you have a plan for paid media? Can you measure your results?
• Owned – Owned media of course is a reference to media you create in-house. It includes your website, videos that you create, articles you publish off-site, blog posts, and any other type of media that you have the copyright to. You own that media.
• Earned Media – In the old days of offline marketing, earned media meant sending a press release to a news editor somewhere and hoping he found your story worthy of journalistic mention. Today, you don’t necessarily need professional journalists and editors, though they can help. Earned media includes interviews with bloggers, social media shares by celebrity networkers, and virtually any digital move that involves other people in an online format – forums, videos, blogs, social networks, etc. If it goes viral, that’s the ultimate earned media.

A good marketing strategy involves all three of these types of media. Plan it, implement it, and measure it. Follow a useful strategy and your online marketing efforts stand a much better chance of succeeding.

I saw this image online this morning.

Just in case you can’t read the questions, here is a sampling of the questions with the answers:

1. In which battle did Napoleon die?
   Student’s answer: the last one
2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
   Student’s answer: at the bottom of the page
3. River Ravi flows in which state?
   Student’s answer: liquid
4. What can you never eat for breakfast?
   Student’s answer: lunch and dinner
5. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?
   Student’s answer: Very large hands

This student failed his exam, but I think he should have passed on creativity alone.

When it comes to online marketing, many times the answer to your most pressing questions are not direct response. They require some lateral thinking, what is commonly referred to as “out of the box.” Are you engaging in that kind of thinking for your business’s marketing needs?

Here’s the real question: How do you get to that level of thinking about your online marketing?

Answer: You study and learn all the right ways, then go your own way.

You might think doing what everyone else is doing is the best way to go about marketing your business online, but it’s really not. You have to find your way. Sometimes that requires a lot of study time to come up with the answers that everyone expects you to come up with. Then, once you know those answers, defy the test. It’s not all black and white.

If you plan on doing any online marketing in 2012, what are the important methods of marketing that you should focus on? What should you stay away from?

First and foremost, SEO is definitely not dead. You shouldn’t give up on that yet. But it has changed in the last five years.

For instance, if you are out prowling for links and looking for high PR do-follow links, then you are probably wasting your time. But if you are focusing on placing your unique articles on high profile, high traffic websites where they will be seen, then that is a much better way to go about link building in 2012.

Social media is another online marketing tactic that isn’t going away. However, don’t just sign up for a bunch of social media websites and forgetting about them. Stick the large sites with current traction and high traffic. For most businesses, that means Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. If there are niche-specific sites that you can focus on, join them too.

Whichever social media websites you decide to join, stay active.

Video marketing and mobile marketing are two other online content strategies that are gaining ground and look to be effective in 2012.

Online marketing hasn’t changed much in the last five to ten years, but it has changed. Make note of the changes and keep promoting your content far and wide.

A gravatar can be a very useful tool for online content providers. It does several things for your online identity including:

• Notifying bloggers that you are not a spammer
• Making your name and website more brandable
• Easily identifies you as authentic everywhere you go
• Unifies your blogging, commenting, and social media presence across all channels

Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. It’s easy to set up. You just head over to Gravatar.com and upload your photograph or image – the one you want to be associated with a particular e-mail address. It’s important to note that if you own several websites and have different e-mail addresses for managing those websites and often comment on blogs, forums and social media sites under your various names, then you can have more than one gravatar. You can have one for each e-mail address you own because the gravatar is associated with a single e-mail address.

Every time you enter your e-mail address into a comment form, your gravatar will appear beside your name. This makes you recognizable to other commenters while branding you online and shows that you are a legitimate poster, not a spammer.

I highly recommend that you set up your own gravatar – especially if you blog regularly and comment on other blogs regularly.

Companies who have been spending money on marketing and advertising off line for years are often reticent to join the online marketing party, especially if their off line marketing is continuing to be effective. That’s understandable. But Reciprocal Consulting has been watching the Internet marketing space for several years now and we’re seeing some interesting trends.

First, more and more companies are moving some of their marketing budgets to online marketing tactics and strategies. Those companies that are already using online marketing channels are beginning to spend more on those channels. There is a reason for these trends. Online marketing works.

However, there are quite a few online marketing channels that may or may not work for your business. It’s important to focus on the tactics and strategies that have the greatest potential.

When you plan your Internet marketing strategy, focus first on the least expensive tactics that historically have the greatest return on investment. Obviously, if you don’t have a website, then you’ll need to focus on website design before anything else. But then what?

Your next step should be to improve your website’s search engine optimization. A well optimized website can give your business a boost that lasts for years.

Pay per click marketing is another online marketing channel that delivers results. It might cost more in the short term than other marketing tactics, but you’ll often see more immediate results, which can be very encouraging if you are new to Internet marketing.

The idea is not to make a big bold leap from off line marketing to online marketing, but to gradually shift your marketing dollars from staid old ineffective strategies off line to better, more effective strategies online. By integrating your online marketing efforts with your successful off line marketing efforts, your overall marketing strategy should be stronger and more effective.

Here’s an interesting take on an old saw. Your so-called social influence may be a sham. But that doesn’t mean it has no value.

I like the last paragraph of the article cited above:

If the Harvard Study is right and “peer influence is virtually nonexistent,” that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the social media towel. All it means is that you may need to adjust your thinking. Instead of pushing to bring new lambs into the fold, sell to the ones you already have corralled.

First, it’s long been a business principle that it’s easier to upsell to current clients than it is to sell to prospects. Nothing new there.

But the study that says that people become friends because they are already interested in the same stuff more than people interest their friends in new things isn’t really new information, is it? I mean, isn’t that how it works in the real world? You become friends with people who have similar interests. You may, once in a while, talk a friend into taking an interest in something new on the basis of your existing relationship. So what?

The so what here is that, though rare, social influence does happen. While it might be savvy marketing to put some money into that influence, there are more cost effective online marketing techniques. And they’re not hard to find.

Here’s a great article on local online marketing. I have three comments to make about the content in the article.

1. Paid search still packs a powerful punch – I don’t care where you live, paid search has the greatest potential to drive targeted traffic to your website fast. And then you can reap an ROI that is difficult to match anywhere else. I’d say paid search is better than TV and radio – especially for effective local marketing.
2. You can’t separate local from mobile – Mobile marketing has arrived in full force and if you think about it you’ve likely seen people use their cell phones to find businesses to shop in as well as to find products to purchase locally. While people may use the Internet to research purchases, they still would rather purchase locally. Mobile marketing makes that so much easier.
3. Localization and local awareness - The big trend is for big businesses to customize their marketing for local geographic markets. Modern online technology makes that possible. A huge part of that effort is with local smartphone apps. Location-based apps make local marketing easier and local shopping better.

Online marketing is getting a lot better for small businesses and making the world a better place for consumers.

Conversational marketing is a concept that has been around for about as long as the Internet. First outlined in a book titled “The Cluetrain Manifesto,” it espouses that idea that markets have always been conversations – with the exception of that brief period in the 20th century that was dominated by mass media.

Unfortunately, some businesses – big businesses, in particular – are still trying to play the mass media game. But it doesn’t work. Not in conversations.

The Internet allows consumers and marketers to enter into a conversation where they can mutually agree to terms that benefit both parties. That’s what commerce has traditionally been based on. Both parties receiving a benefit in exchange for a benefit. And that’s what the Internet fosters as well. You and your clients can enter into transactions that lead to mutual benefit. But it starts with a conversation.

Online, conversations generally take place through social media.

If you’ll open up accounts at the popular social media hot spots – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ – then you can enter into conversations with your customers, or prospective customers. Then you can take those conversations to your blog and ultimately to your internal communications – videoconferencing, phone, e-mail, etc.

Don’t overlook the power of conversational marketing. It is a two-way street that offers untold benefits in the digital age.

It might be too late to make the announcement, but did you know that today is Small Business Saturday? You can learn a little bit more about it on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

The sponsors of this movement – American Express – are offering free in-store signage and e-marketing materials. Of course, today is the day so it might be too late to take advantage of some of these offers. But there’s always next year.

Meanwhile, the page was set up to help small businesses take advantage of holiday shopping. Other resources available through the page include:

• Share An Offer – Which allows you to create an offer for your small business that shoppers can take advantage of.
• Create A Facebook Page – Free.
• Create A Video
• Get Twitter Followers
• Create A Buzz On LinkedIn – One of the best bets for small business owners.

You can also join the Small Business Saturday e-mail list and forum. That might be a good way to promote your business today, especially if you do any online marketing.

The event is sponsored by American Express. If you accept American Express, why not take advantage of Small Business Saturday. If not this year, then look for it next year.

There’s no doubt that SEO is a necessary component to your online marketing efforts. But what about branding? Is it necessary for online marketing? Which is more important?

Let’s take a look at the functions (purposes) for each of these efforts.

Search engine optimization – The purpose for SEO is to get your content to rank in the search engines so that you can increase your website visitor traffic and convert it into sales. That’s obviously an important task, but if all you did was SEO in the way of marketing your content and your website, then you’d be woefully undershooting your target.

Online branding – Online branding has a much wider reach. It can, and should, include SEO. But it should also include your social media initiatives and everything else you do – online and off line.

If you think of online branding as a part of overall reputation management strategy and your overall business strategy, then it is far more important than SEO, which is simply part of your overall marketing strategy. Granted, it’s an important part, but it’s not the only part worth considering.

In terms of online marketing, everything you do is a part of your branding effort. That includes SEO.

You cannot manage a website without traffic. It is the lifeblood of any online business. So how do you drive traffic to your website? How do you ensure that your website is profitable when you are building your business?

Here are 5 incredible sources for website traffic no matter what kind of business you are running online:

1. Search Engines – Search engines are still the No. 1 driver of traffic to most websites online today. That’s why we always recommend that you dedicate a portion of your online marketing budget to search engine optimization.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising – PPC ads are immediate. You can start a campaign today and see business results today. Yes, you pay for the clicks. But if you do it right, it will be profitable. And the results are instant.
3. Newsletter - An e-mail newsletter is one of the most profitable investments you can make. After more than 20 years, it’s still one of the most effective online marketing tools. You can take e-mail subscriptions right from your website and deliver your newsletter electronically more cost efficiently than any other kind of online marketing.
4. Videos – Online video marketing is just as effective as TV advertising and much more cost effective.
5. Social Media Marketing - The best thing about social media is it allows you to build relationships off site, then you can drive that traffic to your website for the close.

Use these five online marketing strategies together for incredible traffic generation results.