Eight Essential Small Business Internet Marketing Tools
Marketing your business on the internet successfully is a very important part of today’s competitive business landscape. There are many internet marketing tools available to small business that they can use to grow their customer base and challenge their competition big or small. These are some of the tools that I use when working with my clients. Some may be very familiar to you and perhaps underutilized where others might not be familiar to you.
Here are eight essential marketing tools:
HootSuite
If you’re looking for a marketing tool to track your Social Media efforts, HootSuite is a very feature rich dashboard for managing your brand on Social Media channels (I.E. Facebook) with excellent reporting capabilities. You can immediately publish and schedule content for release on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress and many more. HootSuite is a free tool but if you’re tracking more than five Social Media channels you will have to pay a small monthly fee. HootSuite is based in Vancouver, B.C. www.hootsuite.com
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a great way to start your first blog and/or get a website live in seconds that has loads of functionality but very cost effective, nada! They have great themes for the look of your site, plenty of widgets (add-on pieces) and lots of viewer stats and you can track blog comments. Blogging is a great way to express thought leadership on a topic specific to your industry or business. Search engines love blog content. www.wordpress.com
Google Analytics
A lot of people are familiar with Google Analytics but may or may not be using it. Google Analytics is a free service by Google that generates detailed statistics of the traffic (viewers) of your website and presents this information in the form of an easy to read dashboard. Google Analytics can track website visitors from all search engines, AdWords campaign traffic, pay-per-click referrers etc. All it takes is for you website guru to drop a bit of computer code on your website and you’re ready to go in a few steps. Use it; it’s a powerful marketing tool! www.google.com/analytics
Google Keyword Tool
Keyword research is a very important part of your internet marketing strategy. Keywords are the search terms that people enter into the search engines when there trying to find your business (I.E. Hair Salon Milton). It’s really important that your website or blog have these keywords in locations like the title of your website so that search engines can rank your site accordingly. Take a few minutes to check out the Google Keyword Tool to determine the actual search terms people enter into the search engines when conducting a search for your business. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
YouTube
I’m pretty sure by now most everyone knows the video sharing website YouTube. YouTube was purchase by Google in 2006. Billions of videos are watched on YouTube every single day. It can be a very effect marketing tool for any small business trying to market their product and services to a global or local customer. Businesses can have their own dedicated YouTube page or Channel on which you can post product videos, company profiles or just a walk through showcase of your business. The Milton Chamber of Commerce has a YouTube channel for member videos and event coverage. Again search engines love video, use it effectively as a differentiator in your business. www.youtube.com
Open Site Explorer
This marketing tool is probably not familiar to you. One important part of winning the search engine ranking game with your business is to have what are called backlinks or incoming/inbound links to your website from quality external sources or other websites (I.E. Partners/Friends/Customers). The more legitimate backlinks you have the higher your website is ranked against your competition. At Open Search Explorer you can input your website address and see how many websites link to yours. Don’t forget to try it for your competition as well to see where you stand. Try it! www.opensiteexplorer.org
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is an internet hosted service for remote meetings and sharing your desktop that enables users of GoToMeeting to meet with other computer users, customers, clients on the internet in real time. This tool has really help me in marketing my business through hosting webinars with prospects to review products, give presentations or help someone resolve a problem by viewing their computer desktop. Hosting a weekly webinar is a fun way of spreading the message of your products and services to a global audience. GoToMeeting does have a price to it costing me approximately $50 per monthly. Considering how much it saves me in travel and fuel costs its well worth it. www.GoToMeeting.com
Market Samurai
Market Samurai is another one of those more obscure marketing tools that you may not have heard of but it does have some great features when it comes to search engine keyword analysis and research. I use it with quite a few of my clients. Market Samurai is like Google Keyword Tool on steroids. It can not only preform keyword research but it will also compare your rankings to that of your competition, very powerful. Use it as a key differentiator. The price of Market Samurai is a little more than the other tools I have offered here but it is definitely worth it, expect to spend somewhere between $100 and $150. Try the free trial for 12 days and get a discount. www.marketsamurai.com
I hope you have a chance to try some of these internet marketing tools and they help you in growing your business.
Richard Bolton – Centricity360 Consulting
Social Media – Leads via LinkedIn Groups Most Likely to Convert : MarketingProfs Article
When assisting clients with LinkedIn strategies to drive traffic to blogs, websites or landing pages, I try to make certain that they are positioning thought provoking content within LinkedIn groups to drive traffic from a targeted audience. This MarketingProfs article highlights some interesting statistics on this very subject:
Social Media – Leads via LinkedIn Groups Most Likely to Convert : MarketingProfs Article.
Richard Bolton – Centricity360
Article – eMarketer – Posting Strategies that Encourage Engagement on Facebook
APRIL 11, 2011
Companies should consider the day, time and content when writing posts.
Buddy Media analyzed the Facebook posts and engagement rates for more than 200 clients over the course of two weeks in January and February 2010. The agency measured engagement by looking at comments and “likes,” and factored in fanbase size.
According to Buddy Media, 60% of posts were published between 10am and 4pm. However, many Facebook users prefer to log on to the site before or after work, and their engagement with company posts is higher during those times.
By timing content to post when consumers are poised to be on Facebook, companies have a greater chance of being seen in a fan’s newsfeed. Additionally, the study found that engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursday and Friday than the other days of the week.
But that isn’t to say that marketers should only post on those days. Amy Morgan, public relations and social media manager at ConAgra Foods, is part of the team that oversees a Facebook page for Chef Boyardee’s Club Mum program targeting moms. The company posts several times a day.
“When you talk about building a community and building engagement, you need to have a consistent conversation,” Morgan said in an interview with eMarketer on February 22. “As far as Facebook, we post usually once or twice a day. It ebbs and flows, but once or twice a day is usually good.”
While the timing of posts often determines how engaged fans will be, their content is also important. Buddy Media found that shorter is better, as posts with 80 characters or less have a 27% higher engagement rate. Certain words also encourage engagement, particularly those that are instructions such as “like,” “post,” “take” and “comment,” as does asking a question at the end of a post.
For the Club Mum Facebook page, Morgan said that asking fans about their children is an easy way to get them to comment on a post. She said, “It’s about making this personal and really allowing the community to help build that conversation.”
Social Media and Customer Acquisition- Paying off for Small Business……
Most of my social media clients are in the small business classification. Often I meet with prospects that are just unsure as to whether a social media campaign can help grow there business. There is more and more evidence that adding social media to your marketing mix can have a positive impact on your small business in the area of customer acquisition. I read a recent article on Click {Weekly} with statistics from eMarketer, stating that small business is generating net new customers through social media. It works, but it takes time and effort. Keep building your social media network, and yes it will pay off.
Social networks – the new frontier for customer acquisition
Richard
Centricity360
Social Media, Local Government and the threat of negative backlash….
I recently gave a presentation to a government organization. My research lead me to believe that Social Media is a tremendous asset for local government. Especially considering Canadians are now flocking to the internet like never before, hungry for alternative sources of information other than TV, well maybe that’s just me. ;o) All kidding aside it’s true, recently statistics from Ipsos Reid are proof, Canadians are spending more time online then in front of the tube. There using the internet as there source of information. Good, bad, indifferent?
Some of the reasons why social government are adopting Social Media channels are:
•Inexpensive channel for PR.
•Direct line of communication with constituents. Instantly.
•Increase Accountability.
•Promote Transparency
•Encourage Participation. Crowd Sourcing. Feedback.
•Reach younger audiences.
•Extend reach to people who might not get their news from more traditional sources.
•Budget cuts recently for traditional methods of marketing and advertising.
During my presentation some open and lively debate ensued around the concept of negative feedback/comments from constituents reading local government blog postings. Some of the participants felt they would be overrun by negative comments on certain issues that are already hot topics, causing an endless loop of responding back to constituents because of their obligation to address constituent complaints. I would be very interested in getting feedback from colleagues in the Social Media arena as to how to handle this situation that would benefits both parties. What do you think?
I’ve embedded my presentation: Social Media for Local Government (Canada) – Listen, Engage and Inform June 9th , 2010
[slideshare id=4454820&doc=socialmediaforlocalgovernment-canada-100609125953-phpapp01]
Richard
Centricity360
How Dell Provides Tech Support Though Twitter
I’m always intrigued by companies that use innovative ways to handle customer service issues. I’ve heard that Dell monitors the cloud for anything said about its product. Specifically any consumers using Twitter to ask questions regarding Dell products. Imagine, proactive customer support. Why wait for the consumer to call support. Dell monitors Twitter for any mention of their products and proactively sends responses with links to knowledge base solution articles, even if the Tweet is not direct to Dell support. Now that’s a competitive advantage through proactive customer service. Great job Dell!
How Dell Provides Tech Support Though Twitter
Richard
Centricity360
What is Social CRM anyways……
Last month I had the opportunity to present to a Communitech – Strategic Marketing Peer to Peer group. Communitech is, in my opinion, the premier technology organization in Ontario, Canada. It’s very well-run and organized and an excellent networking group. The subject of the presentation was Social CRM (SCRM). A topic I have paid more and more attention too. At it’s roots, SCRM is really about where Social Media and an organizations internal Sales, Marketing and Service meet and are supported by CRM software technology. My interpretation of the concept of SCRM is:
- Social CRM is a new organizational philosophy for governing our businesses in the new social economy.
- It’s a customer strategy by which sales, marketing and service departments use social media to engage and support the customer. Externally.
- How we share, interpret and act on those conversations in the best interest of customer. Internally.
- How we interact with the CRM software system to track and convert those internal and extenal conversations.
By definition (SCRM):
“CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”
By Paul Greenberg, President, The 56 Group
A most interesting concept, none the less. Please view my presentation here:
[slideshare id=3057552&doc=socialcrm-scrm-100202180039-phpapp01]
Richard
Centricity360
Understanding you customers social behaviour……
I had a chance to watch a webinar yesterday presented by @jowyang and @charleneli of @altimetergroup. These two I follow closely in the realm of social media. There presentation was on #socialgraphics, the first step in the Social Media Strategy process. Socialgraphics is really all about having a firm understanding of exactly who the people are that you are going to influence and what are the capabilities of this audience on the social web. Your customers, prospects, partners and colleagues are communicating and interacting on the web using the available social networks and tools. To communicate your influence it’s important to listen first and understand your audience. What types of social networks, media sharing and assets do they engage? What are their goals for doing so? Who are the influencers?
Find the prsentation and webinar here:
Richard
Centricity360
Don’t forget, social media is about promoting your clients too……
Too often we think in terms of promote our own business online using social media.Well, yeah, that’s what its for, right? Don’t forget Social Media is also about promoting your clients, partners, colleagues and prospects as well. If your client has a new product or service and sends out a Tweet about it, Retweet it to your followers. Maybe your partner is having a seminar, send out the invitation to your followers. Maybe one of your colleagues wins an award, congratulate them on LinkedIn and make a recommendation for them. Let’s not forget, give to get. You’ll get back in return what your give out to your social media channels.
10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists
Richard
Cent360
Groundswell, Canadians embrace social technology……….
Hands down, Groundswell is one of my favourite, top five, books on social media. It outlines the POST strategy (People, Objective, Strategy, and Technology) for creating a strategy for social media in your business. I’m a stickler for creating a social media strategy because ultimately we want to see results from our social media marketing. It’s a great read, pick it up.
Check out some of these impressive statistics from the Groundswell blog:
- With 79% of online Canadians connecting with social content in some way at least once a month, Canadians are among the most active consumers in any country we survey.
- Well over half of online Canadians connect with social networks.
- As in other countries, young Canadians use social technology more than older Canadians, but Gen X Canadians are still very active, with 85% using some form of social technology at least monthly.
After reading Groundswell I had a chance to surf their blog. Also, a really good read. They have a social technology profile tool for profiling your customer’s social computing behaviours. When I prepared to use the tool to create a profile of my clients based on the criteria’s required, I noticed one glaring oversight. When it came to choosing the country in which my business resides, Canada, was not on the list!!!??? As a hockey lovin hoser I was a little put off by this, eh!
Well, fear not my fellow Canucks; they have released that very information for Canada. Please review and discover:
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/12/new-data-canadians-embrace-social-technology.html
Richard: Centricity360