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With the amount of daily junk entering our e-mail boxes these days, most of us will go to great lengths to keep our e-mail accounts spam-free. However, there are many others who subscribe to mail that promotes products and services from websites, mainly because these subscribers are keen to learn more about what is being offered and whether it can benefit them. In fact, they expect to get be kept informed about what’s new in the market in their chosen field. Internet marketers love these kinds of customers: they are a vital element of their business. But how do you win over these kinds of cusromers? The internet marketer’s secret weapon is trust: When your customers trust you they will reward you with their loyalty.

• Send to legitimate subscribers only! To be able to be allowed to send promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and marketing media, the first thing you will is need permission from your recipient, so make sure you only send to people who have willingly signed up to your subscribers’ list. Having good material on your website or landing page will already begin to build their trust. After all, they are not going to sign up to something they don’t trust.
• Share your expertise: Gaining your customers’ trust should be easy if you give them some of your knowledge and expertise. People rely on other people who know what they are talking about. Gain as much knowledge and information about your internet marketing business as you can. Frankly, if you chose to go into a field you have no interest in it, you should think again.
• Be an expert: Demonstrate to your clients that you know what you are talking about. Provide them with helpful hints and tips pertaining to your product or market. Talk about how to install programs if you’re marketing software or provide articles on exercise if you’re a promoting weight-loss products. If your customers see you as someone who knows what you’re talking about, they will trust you quickly.
• Use the secret weapon of business - integrity: In other words, be true to your customers. Provide first class products and services, give money-back guarantees and after-sales services. The more satisfied customers you get, the more likely it is that they will recommend you to others. Recommendations will grow your list ten-fold: people trust someone they know, so when one person recommends you, another will go to your site and check it for themselves, already with an attitude of trust. So make sure you provide top-class, consistent service. Remember not to lose the trust you have gained. Never do anything with their email addresses like sell them or give them out. That is a good way to destroy your list
• Provide a get-out clause. Show them that you are not there to trap them. Every e-mail you send should enable them to unsubscribe anytime they want. Providing information on how to unsubscribe from the list on your website form will add to the feeling of trust, Guaranteeing that they can let go of the service whenever they want to. Many people are wary of being stuck for life and will even feel forced to abandon their email accounts when they get over-pestered with spam.

To build a good opt-in list you need people to trust you quickly. And the faster you build your opt-in list, the faster word about your site and internet marketing business will spread. As your opt-in list grows, so will your traffic, spelling more profits. The math is easy if you think about it. Getting the numbers is not that simple though, or is it?

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Simon Whincop is a successful Internet Marketer and writes on a variety of subjects. Visit http://www.webcashmillions.com to find out more about how to build wealth successfully from home as an Internet Marketer.

People are peculiar creatures… more alike in our thoughts and behavior than we like to admit. One thing that is true of most people, regardless of culture, and unique circumstances is that they like to know something that other people want to know.

We also like to share that information.

It makes us look and feel smarter

It allows us to appear to have inside information and we like that. Not only do we like to share information, we like to steer our friends and family in the right direction.

People share all kinds of information. They tell their neighbors which exterminator to use and which one does a shoddy job. They recommend the talented barber or hair stylist.

The same traits are common among your subscribers. They consider you a trusted expert, and a great source of products or services, or they wouldn’t stay on your opt-in list.

You need to find ways to take advantage of this human need to know what-is-what and the instinct to share useful information. Most people will share information willingly and without much incentive from you. However, providing a little incentive usually doesn’t hurt.

Your first step is to convince your opt-in list subscribers that they really do have the inside track for success by being members of your list. There are about a million ways to tell people that they are smart and that by being members of your opt-in list proves it. Never miss the opportunity to share that compliment.

Your next step is to get these smart subscribers to share your great ezine with their family and friends thus building your list.

The easiest and simplest thing that you can do is to… ask them.

Ask them to pass along copies of your ezine or autoresponder messages, and include a link to your subscribe url at the bottom of each issue. That way, those who read “pass-along copies,” and enjoy them, will know how to get more

You can also Offer incentives for referring new subscribers. I actually PAY my existing subscribers (on some lists) for referring others.

You can offer cash payments for new referrals, having them send the referrals to get something like a value-packed free report. Use an affiliate tracking system such as ProfitAutomation.com to automatically track referral commissions and then once a month, pay those commissions.

If you want the paid referral system to be totally hands-free, set it up as an affiliate program using a script like Rapid Action Profits. With Rapid Action Profits, they would use a referral link to sell an inexpensive report, and when a referral gets the report they pay the referrer directly. The token fee for the report, is deposited directly to the referrer’s Paypal account.

This is a very powerful way of using subscribers or customers to build a list of paying customers. Many people treasure a list built this way more because it’s a list of PROVEN buyers.

If you are not familiar with RAP, you can check it out at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/RapidActionProfits/

You can see how I implemented using RAP with an ebook that I wrote called “Secrets Of The Clickbank Millionaires.” I let my subscribers sell the ebook for $5 (a real bargain for their friends) but the payment goes directly to them, and it’s paid INSTANTLY. Since they don’t have to wait for Payments, it’s a very powerful incentive for those with cashflow problems.

You can see how I’ve implemented using “Secrets Of The Clickbank Millionaires” to incentivize subscribers to make referrals at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/ClickbankMillionaires/

Another powerful way to get your existing subscribers, and even just random website visitors, to make referrals is to use a tell-a-friend script on your site.

Perhaps, tell your list that referring your ezine to 4-6 people will earn them a free gift, and set the form to forward them to that download once they’ve completed and submitted the form. Don’t base it on the number of people who actually sign up, but rather on them referring your list to their friends. Many of their referrals won’t sign up, and you need to avoid creating frustration in existing readers who are trying to help you build your list.

You can find good tell-a-friend scripts in many places. The Rapid Action Profits script mentioned earlier even has a tell-a-friend script built in that allows customers and subscribers to make referrals right from your download pages.

I’ve just given you a few quick and easy ways to leverage your existing list to grow your opt-in list even faster. The leverage comes from you simply getting existing subscribers to recommend you to their contacts. You can do this with or without offering an incentive.

Simple isn’t it

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Willie Crawford is an Internet marketer with over 11 years of experience at generating record-breaking sales and massive email lists using viral marketing techniques. Rebrandable books created using Viral Document Toolkit are a favorite tool! See the demo video at: http://ViralDocumentToolkits.com

Tags: Advertising, email lists

Last week I wrote about how the SEO industry is growing up. Tremendous growth and low barriers to entry are / will attract many new entrants to the market.

But with formal SEO training not yet available on mass (i.e. taught in colleges), this growth is going to leave us with a talent shortage.

Essentially, large companies who want to get into this business are going to be forced to buy their way in.

In order to prepare your shop to possibly benefit from this increased M&A activity, it is helpful to have a sense of what factors will make you attractive to a perspective purchaser.

But one size does not fit all.

The evaluation of a one man shop is entirely different from that of a large Agency .

THE ONE MAN SHOP
There are many one man shops that are hugely successful. In fact many of our most authoritative industry experts are sole proprietors.

Like it or not, YOU ARE the business. Your business has little value unless you come with it.

Potential buyers - Your potential buyers are likely those looking to “buy talent” and/or credibility. A new entrant to the SEO Industry can say that they’ve been “doing SEO” for as long as you have.

What makes a one man shop desirable?

1) Reputation / Brand - To be attractive to a potential buyer in this scenario, you MUST have a well known name in the industry. Ideally, you will have case studies from recognizable brands. Further, active participation in the industry increases your credibility as an authority.

2) Re-occurring Revenue Stream - A re-occurring revenue stream will also be important to your valuation as it is likely that your price will be a multiple of your revenue. Moreover, your established business (re-occurrent revenue) should be sufficient to pay for your future salary.

3) Top Line Revenues - An EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) calculation doesn’t make a lot of sense to a one man firm as sole proprietors typically realize their profits as they are earned vs reinvesting.

In this case, a calculation should be made based on a multiple of top line revenues.

SMALL TO MID SIZED SEO FIRM (2 - 30 people*)
If a new entrant is looking to fast track it’s success by”buying the talent” that it requires then considerations around the size and strength of your team will be important.

1) Team Attributes - How many years of experience does your team have? Do you have high turnover? Do you have senior people filling key roles in your business?

2 Process - Process is also an important consideration. A new entrant doesn’t want to just buy talent, they want to buy the secret recipe……

• How do you sell SEO?
• How do you manage the work flow process?
• Who is accountable for what aspects of the process?
• Do you have checks and balances in place?
• What does your reporting look like?
• And to what degree is it automated?

3) Cash Flow - Cash flow will be an important consideration (nobody wants to buy a sinking ship) however if you’re having trouble collecting on your receivables, many companies will assume that once they take over, they can do a better job than you are (rightly or wrongfully so).

LARGE SEO AGENCY (30+ *)
For a large SEO Agency, factors that make you attractive to acquisition focus much more on hard calculations than the softer considerations of small to mid sized firms.

*Note: There are lots of web design firms who claim to be in this category when in fact only a handful of their 30 person shop actually do SEO. This article differentiates between firms with an SEO component versus a dedicated shop of 30+ people who only do SEO.

1) Scalability - The strong team you were proud of as a small to mid sized SEO firm is expected of in a large firm. For a large SEO agency to be attractive for acquisition, organizational structure is critical.

Can the structure be replicated easily for growth? Are there established training programs in place?

2) Cross Sell Opportunity - New entrants will be looking for “fit” with their existing markets.

• Is there an opportunity to cross sell between the acquiring company’s existing clients and your products?
• Is there an opportunity to sell between your clients and the acquiring company’s products?
• What about clients? Do you predominately service mom and pop shops while your perspective buyer mainly targets enterprise sized clients? Your firm will be less attractive if the purchaser is discounting too large a proportion of your business due to “lack of fit”.

3) Technology - Have you invested in proprietary technology that would benefit the buyer either by providing them with a competitive advantage or reducing costs?

Not only does an investment in technology give you an edge against the competition but it also shows long term strategic thinking.

The actual calculation
Keep in mind that there is a difference between book value and market value. A traditional “by the book” valuation will typically end up being a multiple of your EBITDA. Six times EBITDA on the low end and twelve times EBITDA at the higher end.

But EBITDA isn’t always the most fair way to measure value. When companies are growing really quickly, profits tend to be lower or non-existent. This does not mean that your company’s value is non-existent.

This is why in a pressurized environment like SEO, a calculation based on a multiple of your top line revenue may be the more appropriate measure even for large SEO Shops.

At the end of the day, what you’re worth really boils down to how much you’re willing to sell for. And with the industry booming, algorithms changing, new markets emerging - it’s still very much the wild west out there.

so, how do you put a price on fun?

Jennifer Osborne writer and marketer for Search Engine People.

Tags: Advertising, seo industry

According to a new Juniper Research report, 1.3 billion mobile users are expected to use local mobile search services by 2013. While the trends bode well for for the mobile search industry (agencies and marketers alike) the report goes on to caution that these numbers are based on good a user experience.

Mobile devices however appear to be catching up to user expectations with the iPhone getting 50 times the amount of searches than the other leading handsets! “Apple couldn’t believe the scale of the searches, neither could Yahoo. Clearly, going down the line a good proportion of those searches will not be for content, they will be for local searches, they will be location-based searches. That will increase searches as a whole,” said Windsor Holden, principal analyst with Juniper. In fact, Google, Yahoo! and AOL recently all announced plans tied to mobile applications and development.

The Juniper report goes on to say:

• Local search is expected to account for 43% of cumulative mobile search advertising revenues between 2008 and 2013, reaching total revenues of $4.8 billion by 2013.
• User response rates to advertising which supports mobile local search are expected to be significantly higher than for advertising on general mobile web search.
• Western Europe currently accounts for the greatest volume of mobile search enquiries, but that will soon change as they will be overtaken by the Far East and China region.
• The so called “advertising overload” might act as a disincentive to consumers and might ultimately limit adoption. Other factor to worry about is the continuing public concern over search engine usage of personal data.

Another interesting fact is that research firm Strategy Analytics predicts 290 million mobile handsets will be sold this quarter, an increase of 12 percent compared to Q2 2007 and forecasts total mobile search revenues to reach $4.8 billion by 2013.

Recognizing the trends, its no wonder advertisers are beginning to take notice and look towards taking advantage of mobile marketing opportunities. One such company is Keller Williams Realty, North Americas fourth largest franchise real estate company, where today they announced a campaign aimed at individuals who are looking for a home, to instantly receive details on the property they are interested in on their mobile phone.

It certainly appears as though local and mobile search has passed the tipping point and will become part of the strategic discussions with clients.

Tom Tsinas - Prior to joining SEP, I spent 10 years with Canada’s original search engine, the Yellow Pages Group. I worked in several key Departments including Marketing, Business Development, eProducts, Local and National Sales.

Tags: Advertising, local search

Everybody knows they should be building a list of targeted, responsive subscribers, right? Well, if you didn’t, now you do.

But the fact is, building a list is harder than it used to be. Competition is high, and it seems like everyone is fighting for your subscriber’s attention. What this means is less people will join your list, less people will open your emails, less people will read your email and less people will ACT on your offers. All told, this means less money in your pocket from your email marketing efforts!

This problem hasn’t gone unnoticed. Over the years smart marketers have been offering free reports, free ebooks, videos or other ethical “bribes”. But in my opinion, there is no better method for building a targeted, responsive list than eCourses.

An eCourse is simply a series of emails sent to the subscriber with the goal of teaching them something of value. It is the REASON why a visitor to your site gives you their name and email address. They sign up because they want to learn something you are teaching.

Here are the 4 reasons I believe eCourses are best:

Ecourses Build A Highly Targeted List. This is not, “Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you a bunch of emails about anything under the sun”. There is a very specific reason for the eCourse. It is going to teach something about ONE topic. So, when someone subscribes for your eCourse, it is because they are interested in this topic and want to learn more from you.

This targeted list is a huge asset to your online business. You know EXACTLY what the subscriber is interested in. Therefore, you can design your lessons (and offers) to fulfill exactly what they want.

Ecourses Have A Higher Open Rate. Remember, there are other people competing for the attention of your subscriber. After getting people to sign up for your ecourse, getting them to open your email is the second big obstacle you must face. But, since they signed up for your eCourse, they WANT the information you are providing. Therefore, they are waiting for your email lessons. When they receive one, they are much more likely to open it!

More People Will Read Your Ecourse Lessons. Again, your subscribers asked for this information. They want to learn from you. They changed from someone looking for information to someone asking YOU for information. You bet they are going to read your lessons! While other emails go unopened and unread, yours is anxiously awaited and read.

Ecourse Convert Better, Making You More Money. Let’s not fool ourselves, you want to help people, but you also want to make money at the same time. This is why ecourses are perfect. Since your lessons are getting opened and getting read… you get a much higher percentage of people who ACT in response to your lessons. And when they ACT, either by buying your product or buying an affiliate product, you make money. A higher conversion rate means more profits for you!

So, if you want to build a targeted list people who are anxiously awaiting your emails, open them when they arrive, read them from top to bottom and ACT on your offer… eCourses are the way to go. And the great thing is, once you have one of these list building, profit generating courses in place, it runs on autopilot. So, you have plenty of time to create another profitable eCourse!

What’s your first ecourse going to be about?

Edward Lomax is the author of Autopilot Ecourse Cash which teaches you how to create remote control profit streams that work to make you money around the clock. To take one of his free ecourses, visit Big Wealth University.

Tags: Advertising, ecourse, targeted lists

“I rarely encourage clients to sell via one-step, because leads; people who’ve raised their hands can have so much value worked well over time.” - Dan Kennedy.

There’s an absolute wealth of marketing wisdom in Dan’s statement. It’s impossible to do justice to all of it in this short space. So lets get into it and give you some important food for thought…

You’ll decide to either market to a list, or not. And I know that some marketers just don’t want to be bothered with list generation, for a variety of reasons. That’s fine. So if you’re sitting on the fence about it… just understand that you can be walking away from a LOT of money if you don’t have a list.

If you take your business seriously, then you already know the life-time value of your customers. How much revenue the average customer will bring to you over the time they’re doing business with you.

Armed with that knowledge, you’re able to know exactly how much you can spend to acquire new leads. The smartest marketers know how to break-even to build their lists. And they also know how much that new lead will be worth over time.

Notice how Dan worded his statement; ’so much value worked well over time.’

The key phrase there is, ‘worked well.’ I’ll tell you something. Many businesses flat out do not get it in that area. When their lists either die from attrition, or become unresponsive, it becomes the business kiss of death. And then they wonder what happened.

Simply no excuse for it because it’s SO easy to prevent. You just need to know how to do that.

I’m sure many of you know about the Law of Reciprocity. Simply stated, giving someone something… or doing something for another person, will compel them to feel obligated to do something for you. Of course, that ’something’ for you is giving you business.

But stop and think about this for a moment…

People online have come to expect the freebie. The free report, white paper, short ebook… whatever, in exchange for contact information and your continued marketing efforts. It has become a standard for doing business online. Unfortunately this expectation has only served to dilute, if not eliminate, the power of reciprocity. And if your freebie is poor, then you can almost forget any compelling feelings to give you something in return. You’ll immediately become bland and boring because you’ll be lumped in that vague group of online businesses that all look the same. Or worse…

People will label you as a scam, or just someone who wants to make a fast buck. But…

All is certainly not lost… IF you provide good quality information. And you can still harness reciprocity’s power in your marketing. How?

By continuing to provide information of high perceived value in your follow-up emails. But do it with a twist and some common sense. Just think about human nature and it’ll become clear.

First… spark intrigue. Create some suspense and the desire for more. One way to do that is by NOT revealing everything. Don’t give the farm away in your free reports and ebooks. Now this isn’t anything new. But I’ll tell you something I’ve seen a lot.

I’ve seen free reports and ebooks that offered lots of good information. But they failed to create any burning desire. There was no sense of intrigue. No sense of, “I gotta know more about this NOW!”

Let me ask you… when you see a newspaper ad selling whatever, and there’s a picture of an attractive woman wearing a bikini… does that picture make you want to buy?

NO! Probably doesn’t. You see that so much people become blind to it… for the most part. It has no selling value. Or, for lots of guys maybe it might catch their attention. They might check out the hot girl and then move on.

You can be regarded as a respectful, professional marketer simply by treating your list with respect. That means NOT bombarding with a constant stream of, “You Gotta Check This Out NOW!” Don’t beat them up with constant, hard selling.

Keep a continuous rapport with them. Talk to them. Give them substance and good information while sparking an intense desire to know more. Share your self with them and they’ll come to think of you as something more than a marketer.

I’ve been marketing to lists for many years. And I’ve had subscribers stay with me for almost as long. It’s a skill you can learn and develop. And done right, with the right backend offers… you’ll take your bottom line to whole new levels.

A former college dropout, Dan “The Man” Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Discover how you can maximize your website profits in minimum time. For a limited time, you can test-drive Dan’s Insiders Club for 30-days Risk-Free and get $1,165 dollars worth of bonus gifts. Rush cover to:

http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/testdrive.html

Yesterday i started off this series of articles with getting the terminology of Buzz & Word-of-Mouth Marketing Correct, and seeing what the power of Buzz marketing can do for your business. Today we are going to look at some word-of-mouth success stories, and how you can put them to use for your own business. You also need to watch out for negative buzz, and how to avoid it. So without further a due. Let’s get started.

Examining word-of-mouth marketing success stories

You can find plenty of real-world examples showing how successful word-of-mouth promotion can be. You probably have even experienced it as a consumer. In order to launch your own word-of-mouth campaign, you can glean some valuable tips by first looking at the success stories of others.

Emanuel Rosen describes a broad spectrum of these successes in his book The Anatomy of Buzz. Rosen describes how buzz was completely and absolutely responsible for consumer awareness of a software product he was involved with (called Endnote, a program to help academics footnote their sources more easily, to meet different guidelines without having to re-type each source). He was able to track consumer awareness to buzz (something he considers synonymous with word of mouth) because the company hadn’t done any marketing or advertising or publicity when people started to call and ask about it. In fact, the product wasn’t even available when the company received its first order! But the company had done a sneak preview locally, and word spread about it nationally. That first order came in from 3,000 miles away.

Word of mouth has been responsible for the success of other high-tech products as well. But it’s not only the geeks in the world of computer technology who buzz about a product; it happens in the larger world, too. When was the first time you considered getting an MP3 player or a PDA? For most people, these gadgets became enticing only after hearing a friend or coworker rave about his new toy.

How many people make travel and vacation plans based on what people they know recommend or buy cars because of buzz about a particular style? How many times have you gone to the movies based on what your friends are talking about or recommend — often, even when you had no interest in a particular movie until people we know start buzzing about it? For example, remember The Crying Game? The Sixth Sense? And The Blair Witch Project? All of those movies benefited from buzz and word-of-mouth marketing.

Books are another typical product that benefit from great word of mouth. In fact, book publicists typically send a copy of a new book to a targeted list of “big mouths” whom they know will talk up a book that they enjoyed. To book publishers, being a big mouth isn’t a bad thing at all. Those people know a lot of people, they talk to many people regularly, they’re free with their opinions, and people listen to what they say and what they recommend. Big mouths spread the word about a new book, and they can help it get noticed and sell — which is increasingly tough to do given the enormous number of new books that are published every year.

You may be surprised at the success stories of many titles you’re familiar with. I remember how buzz contributed to the success of one such book: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. And Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, writes about another book that caused a sensation: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. Interestingly, word of mouth was responsible for the enormous success of each book, but the buzz on the two books happened in very different ways: One was top-down, and the other was bottom-up.

In the case of Cold Mountain, the buzz was driven from the top-down. The book started to sell as soon as it was published, but it became a bestseller because the publisher wrote personal letters to key booksellers and sent copies to people he thought would be key readers (and therefore had big mouths).

In the case of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, the book didn’t sell particularly well at first. It got a few good reviews and sold a modestly successful number of copies in the original hardcover edition. When the book came out in paperback, though, the author noticed that groups of women would come to bookstores to have her sign their copies, and they were buying several copies of the book for their friends. What had happened was that readers had identified with the theme of the book and were reading it in bookclubs and other communities, and those communities started to buzz. That word-of-mouth groundswell caused the book to sell 2.5 million copies.

Beware of negative buzz!

Warning: A product can also be affected adversely by negative buzz. Remember the problem with Intel’s Pentium chip, back in the early 1990s? Someone found a small error in the chip, and news about it spread furiously fast on the Internet — so fast that Intel couldn’t contain it and didn’t remedy it fast enough. That negative buzz cost the company $475 million in write-offs — but it offered a great lesson in what to do and what not to do when someone discovers a weakness in your product or service.

Tip: Keep in mind the old adage that a happy customer may recommend your product or service or store to someone else, but an unhappy customer will definitely complain about you to at least three people. The power and speed of the Internet have increased that nightmare scenario exponentially. Do your best to keep your customers happy — no matter what.

In tomorrows post, i will throwing some ideas around on how to generate buzz for your business or website, hiring the right people to promote your product or service, and taking advantage of celebrity endorsements.

Author:  Andy MacDonald, CEO of Swift Media UK, a website design & search marketing company. For daily tips on Blogging, Marketing, SEO & Making Money Online, Checkout our SEO & Marketing Tips for Webmasters blog or Subscribe by RSS.

Advertising today not only includes the paid placement of marketing messages but also some free methods of getting your message out. Buzz and word-of-mouth marketing fit into this category — though you can also spend money to create buzz or great word of mouth. . In this 4 part article over the next few days, I explain what you need to know about these tactics and show you examples of how they work in the real world so you can put them to work for your own business. Just ensure that when you plan and implement your marketing strategy, you avoid these common marketing mistakes.

Getting the Terminology Straight

Just in case you’re still thinking that word-of-mouth marketing isn’t a legitimate, controllable, manageable approach to promoting your product or service, think again. An entire professional association is devoted to word-of-mouth marketing, called the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, or WOMMA — a hilariously memorable acronym.

More important, though, is the fact that WOMMA consists of corporate members only (not individuals), which means that big companies are just as interested in word-of-mouth marketing as small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. For example, just look at a few of the companies that are members of WOMMA — the A&E TV network, Coca-Cola, Dell computers, General Motors, Yahoo!, and Zondervan religious publishing.

In the marketing world, Acronym’s and Jargon are thrown around all over the place, yet there are some subtle yet important differences between recent marketing terms, which I share with you here:

• Word of mouth: The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
• Word-of-mouth marketing: Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services and making it easier for that conversation to take place.
• Buzz marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.
• Viral marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by e-mail.

Seeing the Power of Word of Mouth

Many advertising, publicity, and marketing experts believe that word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful type of exposure that you can get for your product, service, business, or store. After all, who are you most likely to believe? A paid advertisement, featuring an actor who earns his fee by reciting a script written by a salaried copywriter working for a hired ad agency? Or the unsolicited suggestion by one of your friends that “you should see this movie; you’ll love it!” or “buy that car; it’s really reliable,” or “try this restaurant, or gift shop, or dry cleaner, or face cream, or sneaker, or computer, or cell phone”?

Obviously, you’re more likely to listen to your friend. After all, she hasn’t been paid to recommend that product or business. She gains nothing if you do or don’t try it. She’s simply telling you what she loves or appreciates — and that’s a powerful endorsement for any business. Now all you have to do is get those powerful endorsements!

In tomorrow’s post, I offer up a few examples of how word of mouth has worked effectively, for positive business results — and I show you how to prevent the opposite: negative buzz. For celebrities, it may be true that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” but the same isn’t true of businesses!

In the next post, we look at ‘Examining word-of-mouth marketing success stories’ Do you have a particularly good method of creating buzz marketing, or word-of-mouth publicity which works well? Or even buzz marketing which doesn’t work so well. Then let me know by leaving a comment, and i may well include it in one of the follow-up articles to this series.

Author:  Andy MacDonald, CEO of Swift Media UK, a website design & search marketing company. For daily tips on Blogging, Marketing, SEO & Making Money Online, Checkout our SEO & Marketing Tips for Webmasters blog or Subscribe by RSS.

Behavior-Based Internet Advertising: Who Is Watching You?

Have you ever been surfing the web and come upon Internet advertising that provides a direct solution for something that you’ve been researching lately? Did you think that it might be related to your computer cookies, or did you chalk it up to serendipity?

The fact is, it almost certainly wasn’t a coincidence.  Behavior-based Internet advertising is a relatively new and very powerful way for advertisers to get their message in front of potential buyers that they know to be qualified.  The question is, how do they know that the surfer is qualified?

The advertisers know this because the Internet advertising network is tracking the surfers’ online activity.  With tracking, advertisers know what sites you like.  They know what searches you make.  They have profiled you, and, unlike in real life, profiling on the web is AOK — so far.

Check Your Computer for Cookies

Before we get into the legal issues involved, perhaps a further definition of the technology is in order.  Most (but not all) behavioral Internet advertising is based on computer “cookies.”  These computer cookies are tiny files that are placed on your machine when you visit certain websites.  In the simplest form, you go to a web page.  An advertiser has a blank spot, or placeholder, for a banner ad.  But instead of serving up just any banner ad, the advertiser parses through your computer for cookies to discover your likes and dislikes, and then you are fed Internet advertising based on your online behavior.

For some people, this is no big deal.  They like Internet advertising to be targeted toward them, and they don’t mind computer cookies.  For others, it’s a little Orwellian and creepy.  This leads us to the great debate.

Opt-in or Opt-out?

One big question to be resolved is whether ultimately this type of Internet advertising will be “opt-in” (meaning that a user has to sign up in order to receive targeted ads) or “opt-out” (meaning that a user will receive targeted ads unless they specifically ask not to). 

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to know which side the advertisers are on.  If governmental regulators eventually require that all Internet advertising be “opt-in”, the industry will be severely restricted.  My guess is that it would relegate behavior-based Internet advertising to a fringe player in the online marketing world.

The privacy advocates, naturally, are on the other side of the fence.  The vast majority of people assume that their online activity is not being tracked, they say.  Why should they have to take a specific action in order to remove computer cookies and to not be tracked and profiled?

A Do Not Track List?     

Recently, a group of nine consumer advocate groups proposed the idea of a “Do Not Track” list for Internet advertising, which would work in a similar fashion as the “Do Not Call” list works today.  Naturally, this is an “Opt-out” scenario, but because of the attention that the formation of such a list would bring, it may be a suitable compromise between advertiser and advocate. 

How to Prevent Being Tracked

It is fairly easy to prevent being tracked by advertisers.  You simply prevent your machine from accepting computer cookies.  Go to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL and click on INTERNET OPTIONS then the PRIVACY tab.  (Note that these instructions assume you are working with a Windows XP system. The procedure will be similar, however, for other operating systems.)  Slide the bar all the way to the top to where it says “Block All Cookies.”

However, you should be aware that this change may limit your Internet experience.  Some websites will not display properly (or at all) if you do not accept computer cookies.  In my experience, at least one of the top five search engines will not work at all.  Other engines have limited functionality when you block Internet advertising.

Even if you do manage to turn off your computer cookies, don’t rest easy just yet.

The Newest Technology

Recently, it was announced that a Silicon Valley startup named NebuAd has created a new technology that does not require computer cookies.  Under the NebuAd model, the company teams up directly with service providers and installs equipment directly at their facilities that allows them to track the behavior of individuals on the web, even if their machine does not accept computer cookies.  This, of course, requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to embrace the new technology; naturally, they are given a piece of the Internet advertising revenue that is generated.  Whether or not any of the major players embrace this technology will probably depend largely on public outcry, or lack thereof.  Of course, if this does become the newest behavioral targeting standard, we will return again to the question of “Opt-in” or “Opt-out.”

Conclusion

The future of this approach to Internet advertising is unclear, and will depend largely on public education and reaction.  Will people see value in receiving targeted ads, even if it means that somewhere there is an “anonymous” profile of them sitting on a server?  Will they feel outraged and push for a total ban?  It’s hard to say.

Author:  Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld.  Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine

Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it. Are you?

For advertisers, it’s a hard market to pass up. So many people in one place at one time. Marketers see something like this and it’s as if their dreams have come true. It’s got that glowing, shiny exterior that seems to say: come to us. We have numbers.

Numbers are important in a marketing campaign. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. However, in the Facebook world some of those numbers have gotten them in trouble. The reason being that in recent times Facebook introduced a new advertising platform. A platform that gathered numbers that not everyone was comfortable parting with.

Numbers and demographics. Demographics tell advertisers who and where their potential customers are. When millions upon millions of users register their personal information on a social site, all of the sudden demographic research becomes far easier than it has ever been before.

But fail to notify your users or give them an opportunity to completely opt out of the platform, and there will be a huge backlash of opinion. In the space of a month the site can go from “have you tried that out yet” to “remember when everyone liked it?”.

Online advertising propels online development. We all understand this, and, to a point, we all we’ve come to accept this. So much so that we barely even notice it anymore.

Here’s a quick thought experiment. Did you check your email this morning? Do you check it everyday? It’s a fairly common practice. Were you aware that there were advertisements all around your message? We all know they’re there. Flashing, pretty colors or creative titles in bold text. They’re always nearby… just in the periphery of our vision.

Now, do you remember a single one? Do you even remember what they were selling?

My guess is that you probably don’t.

Online advertising is the epitome of the in-the-moment selling. If the pretty colors or particular text catch your eye then and there, you might just click on it. But that means the truth is there’s as much reliance on pure impulse as there is on demographics.

Facebook is the latest in a line of platforms that are trying to deliver the opportunity to receive targeted advertising. Isn’t that nice of them? We’re going to use your personal information to deliver targeted advertising, because we have to advertise, so it might as well be for things you’ve given us hints that you actually like. Oh, and we might sell your information to others, so they can share in this opportunity.

But at least we’ve been given the opportunity to receive ads we want to see.

Wait. Ads we want to see?

Personal information being used to determine out likes and dislikes?

Let’s face it. No one wants advertisements. And rolling out an advertising platform and touting it as something beneficial to a user base isn’t fooling anyone. And in the wake of the backlash from this platform, Facebook has changed some of its policies and made it easier to opt in or out of the program.

So what about regular online advertising in social mediums like this? Is it effective? Do the demographics reduce the dependence on impulse? Or are the users of social sites so intent on the content that advertising doesn’t even register with them?

Studies have shown that the tendencies of the common user lean toward that last option. Click rates per page views on Facebook (and other social sites) are extremely low.

It seems people are too busy with socializing to even give into impulse clicks.

Does that mean you don’t need to consider social media in your online advertising campaign?

Not at all. While there are arguments flying around about the staying power of Web 2.0 applications and whether we’re on the verge of another bubble bursting, that is irrelevant to the current discussion.

In the here and now community works. Advertisements may not, but advertising isn’t your only option on these networks.

Community works because users feel like you have their interests in mind, rather than just your own. Community is about communication, and that might be the best advertising you could hope for.

Author:  Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, an Internet marketing and development firm. His company works with online advertising to develop strategic marketing solutions.