Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
  HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html

Key Marketing Methods For 2008
By Sam Law and Julian Stone (c) 2007
ProWorkFlow (http://www.proworkflow.com - ProActiveSoftware.com - Julian101.com)

Isn't online marketing by definition, expensive? Not
necessarily. Online businesses are coming to the realization
that in an organic environment like the Internet, organic
marketing is required; paying for traditional or static
marketing only gets you so far before it becomes ineffective.
The consumer now controls your marketing.

What is Wrong With the Old Methods?

Old marketing methods are failing because users are beginning to
wise up (Rise Up) against the old brute force advertising that
tries to win users over through sheer volume, using abrasive
web-page banners, unrelated Adwords displayed on the page, or
repeated newsletters (most being restricted by anti-spam laws).

The old methods no longer work effectively for two key reasons.
One is the fact that they are a "flash in the pan", directing
users to websites only so long as you continue to pay for the
campaign, the second reason is consumers are now at the stage
where they either ignore them or go out of their way to block
them (with plug-in based browser or email filtering).

Let's quickly run through some of the "traditional" ways to
market on the web, and their failings.

* Paid Campaigns - (These only work while active) Paid campaigns
  may lure people to your site, but they are regularly not your
  target market and after arriving they promptly leave (High
  "bounce" rate).

* Banner Ads - People hate banner ads. Most of the ads on the
  Internet are loathed because they aren't relevant. Seeing a
  banner for a better insurance rate when on a gaming site is a
  massive disconnect for the audience and a significant portion
  of banner ads are plain abrasive to users. Filling one third
  of your page with banner ads will not increase the likelihood
  anyone will care.

* Adwords - Adwords (PPC, Pay Per Click) have the same problem
  as banner ads, though to a lesser extent. Adwords work by
  displaying "sponsored results," in search engine results.
  Adword results are separated from normal search results so not
  many people select them and the unknown quality in the user's
  eye causes distrust (how do I know that a sponsored result is
  better than an organic result). Competition is fierce, with
  prices spiraling upwards, and returns staying constant. For
  more information see our article about Google marketing
  pitfalls (http://julian101.com/2007/09/google-marketing-pitfalls/).

* Newsletters - One word: Spam. Because of the spam epidemic,
  users are becoming ever more wary signing up to receive mail
  from any online source. Legislation and the ever increasing
  ability of spam filters mean a continually shrinking audience
 (Restricting the ability to send newsletters, and filtering them
  before they reach your audience).

The "Old World" marketing relied on one or two large marketing
sources to drive traffic with big budgets and marketing firms.
You have to get people to create the "news" then you pay other
people to distribute the "news", so you are pulling people into
your "store" to show them what you have (whether they want it
or not).

New Methods for Marketing

These days having others create and distribute your content for
you is in vogue, this can mean syndicating your articles for
other users to repost, paying users to review or rate your
services, guiding users directly on forums or having users sign
up to receive exclusive information. In every case, the handiwork
of distribution is left to others.

Lets quickly run through some of the new "Web 2.0" ways to
market on the web, and the reason you should try them:

* Blogs - Blogs are a goldmine to both the reader and the
  writer. Blogging is less time consuming and considerably
  cheaper than traditional marketing. Blogs give you the
  ability to convey your personal thoughts on happenings in
  your industry and your personal and corporate life, letting
  you really connect with your audience. Another positive is the
  viral marketing component where you are referenced through
  various social media websites, search engines and other blogs,
  increasing both your credibility and searchability, making it
  easier for consumers to find and trust you.

* Forums - Forums give you an insight into what people are
  talking about, letting you get directly into the heads of
  potential customers. An easy way to find an appropriate forum
  is by asking existing customers what forums they frequent.
  Join in conversations, threads, contribute to the community
  and become a trusted member, then you can give your
  professional advice and mention what you do for a living. You
  should approach this as a way to get insight into what people
  are talking about, with the side-effect of possibly generating
  leads. If you approach this as direct marketing, the community
  will quickly tell and either ban you, or develop a healthy
  disdain of you.

* Articles - Articles are a great way to show you are connected
  to the issues in your industry and the wider world around you.
  You can either submit your articles through a syndication
  service, or post it on your blog; even better is a combination
  of the two: Choose a topic you enjoy talking about and write
  an article (like this one!) with your personal opinion or some
  helpful advice. If it is well-written and educates readers,
  you will already have an edge on your competition.

The theme of the new marketing methods is tailoring your content
to the audience. The intent is to create something readers want
to read. Marketing is not about trickery or insincerity, it's
about communicating your ideas with honesty and authenticity. If
it is worthwhile to your users, then they will happily talk about
the content and spread it around. You have to communicate
authentically with your customers and it simply doesn't happen
using "traditional" online marketing.

A word of caution: if you try any of the above methods but
approach them traditionally (as a direct marketing channel) then
not only will you annoy a great number of users, you will also
damage your company image. Again I stress the above point, make
the content something people want to read, not just marketing
material.

Old Marketing Methods That are now Approached Differently

Benjamin Franklin said insanity is "doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different results." This is
increasingly true for some of the more traditional forms of
online marketing. It's not so much what people are doing, but
more a case of how they are being done.

Let's take a look at how we should be approaching some of the
old marketing methods today.

* Press Releases - Before we start, I'm sorry to tell you, but
  unless you are in the 5% of the market that people pay
  attention to, no-one reads your press releases - at least
  no potential customers do. A high percentage of companies
  marketing on the web use traditional methods of delivery,
  either in print or on a section of their website. Consider
  changing your press release to positively present your company
  then send it through a syndication service for papers and
  online news sources to pick up and republish.

* Search Engines - Previously you had to specifically tailor
  your site to search engine specifications to ensure you had a
  high pagerank and were located at the top of search results.
  To put it simply, the important factor was how your site was
  presented to the user. These days although page display has an
  impact, it is far more important to have the right content on
  the site. Search engines now care more about content. Structure
  your pages logically and efficiently with appropriate content
  for each page, and be sure to link to those pages wherever
  possible, especially if you are engaging in blog or forum
  marketing.

* Mailing Lists and Newsletters - With new anti-spam laws coming
  into effect, coupled with users increasingly annoyed at
  anything email based, mailing lists and newsletters are
  becoming far less effective. Ensure all the users on your
  mailing lists and newsletters have agreed to receive them. You
  don't need to re-ask permission from your existing list, but
  be sure to let users op-out, and put an optional op-in form
  link in your communications.

Old-world communication can still be effective, but you need to
ensure it is not your only approach.

The Conclusion?

Reevaluation is the key to a healthy online presence. You need
to be constantly measuring and reevaluating your marketing
methods to ensure you are not wasting money, and can take
advantage of effective new methods.
================================================================
Sam Law and Julian Stone - Project, Task & Time Management
specialists for: ProActiveSoftware.com (http://www.proworkflow.com)
& Julian101.com
================================================================

Copyright © 2007 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.