Marketing In a Virtual World

Before the Internet, small business owners as we were usually limited to a local market -resorting to expensive advertising and brochures, direct mail, cold calling. We were hoping customers find you by word of mouth or Yellow Pages advertising.

Today, we can work with a consultant, a financial planner or a business coach in the country as easily as someone across the city.This is the age of the virtual client. However, while the Internet has made perfect sense to land a major client, you have never met in person; he also created new expectations among consumers.

Customers now "Google" around to find someone with your skills. They expect us to make  a good "deal" virtual for you. If you do not pass the test, or to make a bad impression, or appear dull compared to your competitors, you will lose potential customers.

The only way to be truly successful in business is to establish a good reputation. And understanding of how the business has moved into the Internet age can help you put your company's marketing potential in the virtual world.

The First Virtual Impression

The Internet has raised expectations among consumers and businesses will have a credible presence online.Many of us are now make "first impressions" of people and businesses via our web browsers. From the moment your name and company appear in a Web browser . Our first impression often means the difference between a blow to the business of your prospect, or be shut down.

"Social Media Optimization"

Think about it. You probably used the Internet in search of a company or a person you are considering doing business with. Certainly, customers and potential customers look online, too.Prospects you've never met form opinions about your business at the click of a mouse. Internet first impressions are not only influenced by the way your website looks, but also how your business appears often or how high it ranks in a web browser.

Become a Online center of influence

We all know people who command considerable attention every time they speak. Others want to listen, learn, and imitate them. They are centers of influence, a distinction, you can continue online by developing the following qualities:

• Share knowledge within your target market;
• Participate, listen, contemplate, and offer thoughtful responses;
• Be prepared to express an opinion;
• Assume leadership positions in your industry

Certainly, experience counts. But it is not the only requirement for an online center of influence that will earn the distinction of "trusted advisor" within your target market.

Start by making your website a resource for your industry. Feature lots of useful information, including articles, links, downloads, customer resources, and nothing else use to your target market. Be generous and give, give, give!

Place items online

Online articles based on your expertise by providing useful information that website visitors are actively looking. Online articles, position yourself as an expert in your field and pass a level of authority that establishes trust and opens the way for the sale.

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Social Media Optimization (SMO)

SMO is an acronym for "Social Media Optimization," which is actually a buzzword that refers to ways to optimize online content for social media distribution.

SMO is also used as shorthand for how the content is widely shared online, or the variety and number of channels in social media through which it is distributed. Sometimes it is referred to as Social Media SEO

What is the purpose of SMO?

Since SMO has become a popular marketing term, people use it to mean all sorts of things related to the marketing of websites, services and products, but in general, the goal of SMO is to drive traffic and exposure through the use of social media. Perhaps the simplest way to describe SMO is to say that it refers to almost everything about the smart use of social media.

There are many things people can do to websites and mobile content to make them most likely to be shared across social media, such as adding a Facebook Like button or "send this "for a Web page. These actions are examples of SMO, like everything that makes it easier for people to share content. These actions are considered SMO because they optimize content for social sharing.

How SEO is different from SMO?

SMO is related to SEO, an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization", which in turn means optimizing online content for better results in the search results.Both concepts (SMO and SEO) are similar because both involve optimization of online content so that it is more likely to be seen by a greater number of people.Site owners who want search engines to find and rank their sites more prominent have long referred to the practice of organizing and tweaking their sites to appear better to search engines.

Unsurprisingly, when social media became fashionable in marketing, SMO sentence arose to describe a similar concept for social media - refine online content or a website to facilitate the distribution of tools and social media services.SEO and SMO today are closely linked because search engines take into account how any content place in social media - or how it is widely shared - as one of many factors in formulas to determine placement in the search results.

Key Ingredients SMO

Good content - like SEO, high quality, good content is perhaps the most important in the social media optimization factor. It is real simple - the better the content, the more likely it is to be shared.

Sharing Buttons - Social sharing buttons are particularly important tools for SMO, too. Placing buttons in places where people are likely to click share and can strongly stimulate the distribution of this content. And long term, the additional sharing can lead to better search engine rankings.

Engagement - Encourage conversation, dialogue, or any other type of engagement with your content is another excellent strategy for SMO. It could be as simple as inviting comment or having a survey. Whatever the method, getting people to respond to your comment has a viral effect.

Share your Stuff - Sharing your own content in social media channels is also a key element of any strategy SMO. The more channels you send your content, the more it will be seen and shared by people who do not visit your site to see it.

SMO Tools: Automate Your Social Media Management

A ton of tools for managing social media exist to help people and businesses optimize their content for social media, so that these tools can be considered SMO tools.

The tools include a variety of programs dashboards that enable people to manage multiple social media accounts from one place, like Hootsuite, Buffer , Social Flow and various Twitter clients.

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Benefits of Online Marketing

Marketing online is stretching marketing budgets for many companies. We are all looking for ways to market more effectively along to save the most money possible. The solution? Evaluate online marketing. Marketing your business online brings many benefits that are not available with traditional and offline marketing.

1 - You can make changes on the fly.

One of the advantages of online marketing versus offline marketing such as placing traditional advertisements in magazines, newspapers or on television is that you can change on the fly. By monitoring and check how your advertisements and marketing efforts are doing you can make the decision to change a graphic or wording and do it without any problem. This is not to be the case with traditional marketing and advertising.

"6 true Email Marketing tactics"

2 - You can follow the results in real time.

Online marketing allows you to track the results in real time using the online analysis to make a decision on how your marketing campaign is performing. There are ways to track traditional marketing efforts, but most of the time it can not be done in real time. This can mean the success or failure of your campaign.

3 - You can target specific demographics in your advertising.

Online marketing allows you to target specific demographics such as gender, age and location. You can even target specific income levels, education levels and occupation. You can do this in traditional marketing, but it is not so easy and is often a guessing game.

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4 - Variety of methods of online marketing, including e-mail, audio, video, blog, social media and newsletters.

There are so many options when marketing online. You can use audio, video, blogs, e-mail, social media and newsletters underway. If you were to do the same thing in traditional marketing, you need to select several media outlets to cover your bases.

5 - Ability to instant conversion

When you market online, you have the ability to instantly convert a client. This does not mean the case when evaluating marketing options in traditional media such as advertisements in magazines, newspapers or television. When you are marketing online, you can not only capture information from a potential client, but you can capture a sale instantaneously by a few mouse clicks, when it comes to offline marketing, it takes more time to convert a customer into a sale not to mention the personal power it often requires.

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Mistakes in Social Media Marketing

I've been writing a lot lately about social media marketing, and how to use it in your marketing strategy, but I must admit, I have recently become irritated. There are a lot of companies, I mean big business and soloprenuer who has started to think social media marketing is a get rich quickly or quick solution to small marketing budget to shoot through recession with little or no effort.

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Stop it! Social media is about interaction, and if I haven’t told you once, I aid this, at least a hundred times: it's all about interaction! In the interaction, build relationships; In the establishment of these relationships, there is the opportunity to share your products and services are. This will not happen overnight. Time, consistency and the establishment of a genuine interest is necessary in the creation  and promotion of these relationships. If you do not want to do this, then hire consultants to do it for you; if you do not want to do that either, then FORGET about SOCIAL MEDIA

There is no standard list of right and wrong when it comes to social media, but one thing is constant: no matter what industry you are in, what is bad and you will destroy your reputation in the media social. You can save your reputation by keeping these ways.

Social Media No and Nos

There is no you, INTERACT.

Meet others, Try to know them; It’s not just about trying to sell and promote your products because It will not work.

Spam is not RIGHT.

It is true that spam has become a problem in the social media networks, and we have to weed through it, as we do in our inbox email. No spam followers; if they do not ask, do not send. It's so simple! Permission Marketing is the key.

Inconsistency will lead to FAILURE.

You must be consistent when it comes to using social media. Participate once a month or once a week just not getting the results you want.

Do not be a social media snob.

Obviously, social marketing is to be social; be willing to learn from others, and remember it’s not only about others in your industry.

Want subscribers? You must be a FOLLOWER

Just like you cannot open a store and think the customers will just appear, You cannot just Sign Up and start thinking that everyone in the world will just come and follow you. You must be a follower. Social marketing is not about flying SOLO, Participate

Types of Marketing Strategies

It is important to realize that social media marketing works, but as with any marketing strategy, there are the fundamentals of that strategy to implement. You need to find the right social media marketing medium that will work for you and your industry campaigns and design your campaigns in a way that present the results you want. It is a little to no cost marketing option, but you have to invest your time. If you're not willing to do that, consider selecting another marketing option or outsourcing your social media marketing with a company that can help you create and implement your marketing strategy into practice. If you decide to outsource, just be sure to choose a company or a consultant who has an idea of what they do.

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Is Email Marketing Dead?

All of us receive a lot of emails every day; it is difficult for marketer to get his message in the inbox. What does it mean? Is the email marketing dead?

We have seen some companies give up on email and move towards social networking, mobile messaging and instant applications, including messaging. We've all seen a shift in marketing budgets used in social channels and digital display, but I'll show you why email marketing is not dead and you have to give the highest value to your email campaign so that you get a higher return on investment.

Email still represents a much larger share of customers as compared to social media channels. After all 91% of us use email on a daily basis.

6 true Email Marketing Tactics

I'll tell you what is dead when it comes to email marketing -It is the "email blast", where you put everyone together in one list and just blast them till they are forced to hit the spam button . These types of emails exaggerate consumers. It's like watching your favorite TV show and being hit with a commercial every 2 minutes. Annoyed??

Remember, we have the tools to understand the behavior of our customers. If you are not using these tools as analysis, surveys and segmentation you are missing the boat to marketing and it's time to reassess your approach.

As a marketer you need to understand your customers and reach them with information that not only are relevant, but also find attractive. Your messaging must talk to them.

That is your contest, if you take it. If not, email is dead to you. If you are ready for the challenge then I have a couple of best practices that will help you to ignite the spark in your email campaigns.

Re-opt in campaign

If you've been sending emails and you realize that many of your messages are bounced or returned as spam may be time for a new option in the campaign. Rebuild your list with new Id’s and make sure you are sending the mail to only those who want to receive them.

Sure, this may mean that you lose 50% of your list, but its better to emailing those who want to hear from you to purge out those who do not?

A re-opt in campaign can save you time and money in the long run. Just think about it, every email you send costs you to those who do not want to receive it and it also a effects your reputation.

Go ahead; ask your customers the magic question - "Do you want to continue listening to us," Keep your copy short and to the point.

Rebuilding trust

Now that you have rebuilt your list, you need to rebuild trust. You can build trust by sending an email to the information they have requested and respecting their time. Use your list to engage your subscribers and create a dialogue. It's OK to market and sell your products, but focuses more on building relationships and continues building trust with them so they want to do engage with you.

Another way to build trust is to let them know what to expect when they subscribe to your list. Will you be emailing monthly, weekly, or only when there are special offers? What content should you expect? If you set expectations in the beginning there will be no surprises. A good practice is to send a "welcome" email after subscribing explaining everything out for them.

Segment and optimize your campaigns

The days are gone when you write one message for everyone. You have to make sure your list is getting the information they want. Asked to list the information you would like to receive. Are they interested in the products and / or specific services? Are they only interested in special offers? Do you have unique demographic features that allow you to customize your messaging? Segmentation is the key in optimizing and maintaining a committed list.

Provide Value

Do your emails include information all about you, your products and services? Give value to your patrons. Provide your subscribers with unique content that is interesting, educational and engaging. This will make your subscribers to read it. If this is all about "selling" and provides no value you will quickly make your subscribers to lose interest in your emails. Remember the messages that  are more personal solves a problem and educational are the most effective email content,. If you follow these things you will see your email list to grow gradually.

Email marketing is not dead if you use it as a marketing tool to encourage conversation with your subscribers, your potential customers, in a way to know their needs and gives them the answers they want.

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