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9 Ways to Increase Your Small Company Website Traffic

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:51:06 +0000

Regardless of industry, website traffic is almost always a leading indicator of small company success. More often than not, website traffic directly correlates with sales—meaning slow months on the website can translate to slow months at the cash register. And while large companies view 100 visitors per week as nothing more than a rounding error, at smaller firms these web hits could mean the difference between drawing a paycheck and moonlighting as a restaurant server.

With the above in mind, this article will focus on nine primarily ‘non-technical’ ways for small companies to increase web traffic—ways that any small company owner or manager can implement, regardless of background or technical ability. If you would like to add your own to the list, please feel free to use the comment field at the bottom of this page. Otherwise, enjoy!

Traffic Tip #1: Write Your Pages with Web Searchers in Mind

If the goal of traditional writing is to communicate an idea or theme, the goal of writing for the web is to communicate an idea or theme using specific sets of keywords and key phrases. Before developing content for each of your web pages, identify not only what the page is about, but also the words and phrases people will use to search for it. Then, logically and contextually use the identified words and phrases within the body copy, being careful not to OVER use them and risk a search engine penalty.

Traffic Tip #2: Form a Purpose-Driven Social Networking Group

As businesses continue to implement social networking strategies, marketers are finally realizing the goal of social networking should not be to drive revenue, but to develop a community that will EVENTUALLY drive revenue. Are you an IT consultant? Start a group for people struggling with ERP implementations. Do you own a mail order wine store? Start a group for people who collect rare vintages. Helping people without expectation of profit is a great way to not only build credibility, but drive web traffic in the future—when members of your social group are finally ready to make a purchase.

Traffic Tip #3: Provide and Market Educational Content

In the day-to-day scramble to keep small businesses afloat, it is easy to let making money dominate your marketing strategy. But developing and promoting educational articles, white papers and free templates is still great way to increase interest in a small company website. In terms of general website traffic, “free knowledge” marketing campaigns regularly drive up to 7 times more traffic than sales-related campaigns. And because most people like to share, educational content has a high likelihood of being passed along to other people . . . who will visit your site down the road.

Traffic Tip #4: Start a Blog, Because It’s Not Too Late (Really)

As a blogger rapidly approaching the end of his second full year, I will be the first to admit the most opportune time to start a blog was probably a year before I did it. That said, the benefits of hosting a company-related blog are still significant, and the sheer volume of tools available these days means it’s never been easier to get started. At the risk of repeating a bunch of things I already wrote, I will simply direct you to one of my other articles, The Importance of Blogs for Small Company Web Traffic.

Traffic Tip #5: Find Sites that Will Link Back to You

Search engines like Google, Bing and YaHoo understand that high-value websites have lots of outbound AND inbound channels. Translation? Websites that lack inbound links will rarely show up high in searches. Making sure your website is listed in industry directories and on industry portals is a good first step, and finding sites to repost your free educational content (see #3 above) can help as well. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for link exchanges with related, non-competitive websites and blogs in your industry. The first linkbacks will be the hardest ones to get, but if you work hard and get creative, good things will happen.

Traffic Tip #6: Become a Regular Contributor to the Industry Rags

At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, I will say this: people with deadlines are always busy. And nowhere is this concept more applicable to your situation than with the editors, writers and reporters who support your industry. Making yourself readily available to trade publications—most of which are published electronically—can gain your company timely exposure whenever a last-minute quote, opinion or sound bite is needed. And if your company appears consistently, organizations and publications outside the trade will begin to see your company as an ‘expert’ in the field, which can lead to more exposure on a much larger scale. Example: Earlier this week Harvard Business Services recommended my blog as a small business resource to its readers. This recommendation TRIPLED my web traffic for the week. And yes, I said TRIPLED.

Traffic Tip #7: Ask People for Their Input

If there is one thing in this world more frequently given than birthday presents, it is advice. Offering focus group participation, free product samples and beta testing opportunities is a GREAT way to interest people in your company and your website. And when your initiative is over, your company will be left not only with improved products and services, but with a group of dedicated and highly motivated people who regularly check your website for updates and information.

Traffic Tip #8: Use Social Bookmarks on Your Most Valuable Website Content

No matter what kind of website you operate, there are always a few pages that focus on educating customers without the obligatory sales pitch—articles, white papers, free tips, company histories, and so on. If these pages truly provide value, why not ask visitors to recommend them to others? Social bookmarks drive millions of visitors to websites every single day, and the four most popular bookmarks (Retweet, Facebook Share, Stumble and Digg) take minutes to install. For more information on Social Bookmarking, be sure to spend a few minutes reading one of our most popular articles of all-time, Social Bookmarking Dos and Don’ts.

Traffic Tip #9: Encourage People to Tell Others About Your Company

Nearly six years ago when I met the entrepreneur I work for today, one of the first marketing-related statements she made to me was ” If you want someone to pass on your marketing, why don’t you just ask them?” At the time I had a good laugh to myself at the naivety of her comment. But as embarrassed as I am to admit it now, she was right. Simply asking people (in writing or verbally) to tell others about your company actually works. In fact, I have personally seen an increase in campaign response of between 15 and 50 percent, simply by putting the words “Please pass along to a friend!” in emails, newsletters, catalogs and print advertisements. And of course, an increase in general marketing responses means more clicks to your website.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet or Facebook Share (buttons above), Digg or Stumble (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

5 Free Twitter Tools for the Busy Small Company Marketer

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:06:32 +0000

As I have mentioned several times in previous posts, there are few things in business more challenging, more stressful, and more frustrating than being asked to market your company’s products and services on a shoestring budget. Those of us who have carved a career out of small company (and small budget) marketing know the secret to success lies not in the methods we choose, but rather in the effective and creative use of our time. For the small company marketer, the phrase “work smarter, not faster” is not just a cheesy motivational poster—it’s also a pen, a coffee mug, a desk calendar, and a horribly ill-fitting trade show shirt.

With the above in mind, the emergence of social marketing sites like Twitter has opened up an entire realm of new and low-cost marketing channels—channels that (in most cases) cost the small company marketer nothing but their time. Although Twitter is perfectly capable of burning hours of otherwise productive marketing effort, a handful of creative developers have put together some great tools to minimize the time we as marketers spend in our chairs each day. And I am happy to say I could not survive without any of them.

Twitter Tool #1: The “Follow Everyone in a Twitter List” Button (by TweepML)

After performing this function by hand for months when Twitter first released its “Lists” feature, our good friends at TweepML finally gave marketers the opportunity to follow every person in a Twitter List with a single click. Sound easy? It is. The process is frighteningly simple: you paste the name of a Twitter list you wish to follow into a form field (TSCB/smallbiz-tweeters, for example) hit the “Follow” button (wait a few minutes for the list to appear), login with your Twitter account, tell TweepML to follow them for you, then grab some lunch. When you come back, each individual in the targeted Twitter List (up to 500 people) will be in your “Following” group—and hopefully many will have chosen to follow you back as well.

Tool #2: The Friend Flusher (by Buzzom)

For those who have been struggling with Twitter Karma’s painfully slow and often unreliable “Whack Your Followers” feature, there is a new tool in town: the Buzzom Friend Flusher. In fact, unfollowing people on Twitter who refuse to follow you back has never been easier: simply visit the Buzzom home page, click the “Login with Twitter” badge (center-right, near the top) then hit the “Flush” button in the top left-hand corner after logging in. Within seconds, Buzzom will return a list of people you follow who haven’t returned the favor, and you get to choose whether to keep or “flush” each one individually.

Tool #3: The 6-Day Free Trial (by SocialOomph)

Those of you who haven’t tried SocialOomph have surely heard about it for good reason: it’s one of the most feature-rich social marketing tools there is. But did you know SocialOomph offers small company marketers free use of their Professional Edition for almost a week? In addition to a highly configurable Friend Finder and bulk Tweet uploads, SocialOomph specifically caters to overworked marketers with features like drip feeds, URL shortening, parameter tracking, full blog integration, and clickthru analytics. Registering for the Free Trial requires no credit card—and if you set up your Friend Finder right away, your six days of free use will also include 300 new, highly qualified Friends.

Tool #4: The Automatic #FollowFriday Generator (by The Twitter Tag Project)

If I had to rank automated Twitter tools based on how much time they save me each week, Twitter Tag’s automated #FollowFriday generator would be right at the top. By definition, a big part of any social marketing program includes showing appreciation to people who support you. And there is no better way to say “Thanks” on Twitter than by offering a #FollowFriday recommendation. The system takes seconds to use: you simply enter your Twitter user name into a field, and the system returns about 20 properly formatted #FollowFriday shout-outs to your 200 most active followers—minus duplicates, of course. Once the Tweets are generated you can either click a button on the Twitter Tag website to send them immediately, or copy and paste them into a scheduled Tweet-sending system like SocialOomph. Did I mention I LOVE this tool?

Twitter Tool #5: The Time-Waster, Spammer and Bot Finder (by TwitCleaner)

For those of you who truly believe your company only follows the best, brightest, and most valuable Tweeters in the industry, I have a challenge for you: run TwitCleaner on your account. I dare you. TwitCleaner is specifically designed to find and unfollow various Twitter undesirables, and I can say first-hand it does a remarkable job finding all of the bots, spammers, quote-of-the-dayers, serial Retweeters and dead accounts hiding among your follower base. If your company Twitter account follows less than 1,000 people (as most do) TwitCleaner even throws in the cleaning itself for free. But regardless of account size, the comprehensive TwitCleaner Report—automatically sent to you via Twitter Direct Message—is always run at no charge.

Do you use a free automated Twitter tool or applet you would like to promote? Please feel free to comment on this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (button bar below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

5 Ethical Ways to Grow Your Corporate Email Database

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:47:20 +0000

When it comes to marketing, one of the most essential ingredients for success is time. Over my 18 years as a marketer, I have never heard the words “Quick . . . market this!” nor have I uttered them to someone else. People who market for a living understand the concept of time, and realize things like web hits, social networking followers, and article mentions are earned through months (if not years) of hard work and dedication—not some secret technique or automated tool that can be purchased for $9.99 a month.

Building a high-quality direct email database is no different. Regardless of what many fly-by-night list vendors and list appending companies claim, there is no substitute for time when it comes to growing an internal email list. High-quality email addresses are earned (not purchased) through three things: good planning, great execution, and the elimination of critical mistakes. If your company is interested in steadily increasing both the size and quality of its corporate email database over time, below are five proven strategies for doing so.

List-Building Tip #1: Trade Knowledge for Contact Information

As e-commerce sites become easier to set up and operate, marketing people are getting increasingly more greedy. Five years ago, it was rare to see a marketing initiative drive people directly to a shopping cart. But these days, the majority of marketing campaigns end up with the recipient staring straight into the face of an “Add to Cart” button. These types of campaigns might generate a few quick sales, but they do nothing for an internal email database. Instead of exclusively running direct-to-sale initiatives, try offering a free article, white paper or template once in awhile. If the topic is relevant and timely, people will gladly trade their contact information for your knowledge. And the best part? In terms of general clickthroughs, “free knowledge” campaigns regularly outperform direct-to-sale initiatives by as much as 7 to 1. Yes, really.

List-Building Tip #2: Encourage Pass-Alongs

Nearly six years ago when I met the entrepreneur I work for today, one of the first marketing-related statements she made to me was ” If you want someone to pass on your marketing, why don’t you just ask them?” At the time I had a good laugh to myself at the naivety of her marketing ‘perspective.’ But as embarrassed as I am to admit it now, she was right. Simply asking people (in writing or verbally) to pass your marketing information to a friend, colleague or co-worker actually works. In fact, I have personally seen an increase in campaign response of between 15 and 50 percent, simply by putting the words “Please pass along to a friend!” in emails, newsletters, catalogs and print advertisements. And of course, an increase in general marketing responses means more clicks, more reads, more downloads, and ultimately more qualified email addresses in your database.

List-Building Tip #3: Ask People for Their Input

One of the best and fastest ways to fill your email database with qualified and loyal contacts is also one of the simplest: ask people what they think. Developing a new technology product? Put out a request for beta testers. Writing a new book? Recruit some reviewers. Trying out a new marketing angle? Assemble an online focus group. Although I’ve done these things hundreds of times, it still amazes me how much effort people are willing to give companies in exchange for a few free products or complimentary services—or something as simple as a public “Thank You.” And when your initiative is over, your company will be left not only with improved products and services, but with a group of dedicated and highly motivated email contacts who actually look forward to receiving updates from you.

List-Building Tip #4: Find Good Lists . . . and Rent Them

As counter-intuitive as this may sound, using high quality, industry-specific email lists is a great way to build your own internal database. Is there a popular magazine, newsletter or educational portal in your industry? If so, consider allocating a portion of your marketing budget to renting their contact list once in awhile. With a good list and the right offer (see #1 above for more details) I have seen companies effectively ‘transfer’ up to 10% of the contacts in a rented, industry-specific rented list to their own database with as few as one email blast.

One Word of Caution: depending upon what your company actually sells, renting an email list for $350 to $500 per thousand names can be a bit on the expensive side. Let’s do the math: if an average blast of 5,000 names costs your company between $1,750 and $2,500, the 500 new contacts your company might acquire will cost $3.50 to $5 each. If you’re selling coffee by the cup, paying $5 for one email address might not be reasonable. However, if your company sells enterprise-wide software solutions at $10 million apiece, handing over $5 per qualified industry contact is something your marketing department should be willing to do with a smile.

List-Building Tip #5: Assign an Email Traffic Cop

A friend of mine recently passed along this horrifying story: a new marketing person at her company sent an e-newsletter to 3,000 people in the company’s internal list. Realizing he had provided some inaccurate information, he fixed the newsletter and resent it 30 minutes later. Then, while testing some functions within the company’s email software, the employee accidentally sent the entire blast a third time . . . all on the same day. Thinking they were being spammed, 490 of the 3,000 contacts opted out of the corporation’s email list. The moral of the story? Holding onto your existing email contacts is just as important as finding new ones. The most effective way to avoid miscues like this is to assign an internal “owner” of your company’s email database—someone whose job it is to know who has been emailed, when they were emailed, and exactly what they were sent. This person should also be assigned the job of processing opt-outs in a timely manner, maintaining an up-to-date “Removes” list, and making sure each email communication is unique, valuable, and expected.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise a Retweet (button at beginning of article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

NOTE: This article was written as a companion piece to Eric’s article The New Rules for Direct Email Marketing, which was published in the The RainMaker Report newsletter in February of 2010.

Article Marketing on Twitter: The Art of the Retweet

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:35:47 +0000

By now, most of my regular readers have a pretty good handle on the ‘business model’ of this blog. In a nutshell, my strategy is simple: I write one article per week, post it, then spend the next six days trying to get people to actually read it. This recurring series of events can be a grind for an article marketer, but there is good news: it is definitely possible to significantly increase the distribution of your posts, articles and white papers WITHOUT spending every minute of your free time in front of a Netbook at Starbucks.

Now before I get too far into this, I need to make two very important points:

This strategy will take some time to implement.
If you stick with it, your results WILL improve every single month.

Translation: if you are lazy or impatient, you may stop reading immediately.

Regardless of what the sales rep at your local SEO company says, there is nothing quick, easy, or foolproof when it comes to capturing Internet traffic. It took me nearly 9 months to reach my 1,000th article Retweet (feel free to count them) and almost one-third were acquired in months 8 and 9. The sooner you realize actual effort will be required on your part, the more successful you will be in the long-term.

With the above in mind, here is an easy-to-follow, Twitter-based Article Marketing strategy involving our good friend, the Retweet.

Step #1: Use Your Existing Content to Fish for Retweets. If you’re a decent writer with a reasonable amount of real-world experience, chances are your blog already offers some pretty valuable content. Using your existing articles to generate a few Retweets will allow you to not only hit the ground running, but build a Retweet base for future articles (discussed in Step #3).

Because most serious article readers use hashtags to filter content, adding one to each of your Tweets is a no-brainer. If you write articles about gardening, end each Tweet with #gardening. If you write about coffee, use #coffee. Depending upon the nature of your articles, consider Tweeting an article several times during the course of a week, rotating between a handful of hashtags. Spending some quality time at Hashtags.org will generate plenty of great options to choose from.

To further boost your chances of a Retweet, many experts (OK, mostly me) believe labeling your Tweets with the word “Article” at the beginning can increase RT frequency from article readers. So can putting the words “RTs Welcome!” at the end. In addition, be sure to avoid the mistake of leaving too little room at the end of each article-related Tweet. Remember: most RT buttons add “RT @YourTwitterName” at the beginning of a Retweet, and serial Retweeters typically add comments like “Good read!” or “Nice article” to the end. Be sure to leave room for both.

Step #2: Show Your Retweeters Some Love. Once you acquire your first few Retweeters, the next step is to hang onto them. Like regular customers at a restaurant, Retweeters will return time and time again—as long as they are treated well. Every time someone Retweets a link to one of your articles, is it critical that you both acknowledge their effort and return the favor by:

@Replying them a “Thank You.”
Adding them to a special Retweeter Twitter List.
Retweeting something of theirs.
Giving them at least one #FollowFriday recommendation.

In an effort to lead by example, this past week I sent over 80 Thank You messages and recommended nearly 150 people with a #FollowFriday mention. Sure, 95% of Twitter users don’t bother doing ANY of these things, but we are article marketers. And the world expects more from us.

It is also important to note that some (but not all) of this process can be automated. Although I used to complete Step #2 manually, today I use a tool called SocialOomph (now offering a Free 6-Day Trial). SocialOomph not only handles much of this for me, but manages to find me nearly 50 targeted followers per day. To date, it’s the most valuable $29 per month I spend on article Marketing. I am also quickly becoming a fan of a new social marketing automation tool called Buzzom Premium, which offers the same features as SocialOomph—plus a ridiculous amount of social analytics—for just 10 bucks per month. To me, you can’t go wrong using either or both tools.

Step #3: Ask Your List Members to Help Distribute New Articles. Effective article marketing involves elements of both “giving” and “receiving.” Here in Step 3 the receiving finally begins, and all of your hard work will begin to pay off . . . if you have been following the rules. Remember that Retweeter List I asked you to start building is Step 2? If you send each of these people a quick Direct Message on days when you release something new, odds are they will be more than willing to Retweet it to their followers. Be sure to ask nicely, and provide a shortened version of the URL using a service like TinyURL or bit.ly (otherwise tools like SocialOomph and Buzzom will automatically do this for you).

Also note that Retweets often generate more Retweets, so be sure to use a good dashboard tool to filter and monitor @mentions and DMs. People who Retweet a Retweet (does your head hurt yet?) are just as valuable as the members of your List, and should be shown the same courtesy outlined in Step #2—a Thank You, a List, an RT, and a #FollowFriday mention.

If you want to build a community around your content, there is going to be some work involved in developing an active and loyal follower base. But a system like this can get you going in no time. I know this not because I’m guessing, but because this is exactly what I do every single week.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to post a reply. Otherwise a Retweet (button at the beginning of the article) Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Inexpensive SEO for Small Company Websites: Part 4

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:22:01 +0000

Given the current state of the economy, the days of being able to afford professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) help are gone. As website traffic struggles with the economic downturn, small companies need the services of market-leading firms like Bruce Clay, SEO Inc. and HighRankings.com now more than ever. Unfortunately, we have no hope of affording their five-figure start up fees, much less the $4,000 per month it costs to actually get these overpriced and often arrogant firms to do something productive.

But the good news is, there are plenty of things small companies can do to make a positive impact on both search engine rankings and organic search engine traffic. And the best part is, most of these things are easy to accomplish and absolutely free.

This posting is Part4 in a multi-part series called Inexpensive SEO Strategies for Small Company Websites. Each post covers 3 SEO tips small companies can implement on their own and with very few resources. Part 1 covered the concepts of using keyword themes to create web content, utilizing text-based navigation elements, and maximizing title tags. Part 2 of this series discussed minimizing the use of Flash and graphics, using Meta Description tags, and submitting a search engine sitemap. Part 3 reviewed adding a blog, actively looking for linkbacks, and starting a business-related social networking presence. Part 4 is presented below.

SEO Tip #10: Use Social Bookmarks on Educational Content

No matter what kind of website you operate, there are always a few pages that focus on educating customers without the obligatory sales pitch—industry articles, white papers, free tips, company histories, and so on. If these pages truly provide value, why not ask visitors to recommend your educational content to others with a small social networking block like the one below? Not only do social bookmarks drive millions (if not tens of millions) of visitors to websites every single day, but they also increase your number of backlinks AND in some cases provide additional search engine listings.

In terms of getting started with social bookmarking, the strategy is simple: figure out which social bookmarks your site visitors will use, and offer them. Checking out websites and blogs of companies in your industry can provide much of this information, but those of you who are short on time (or lazy) should know that most small companies will at LEAST include a Retweet button on educational content, as well as support for Diggs, Stumbles and Facebook mentions. Above and beyond that, your choices are literally unlimited—so choose wisely. For more information on Social Bookmarking, be sure to spend a few minutes reading one of our most popular articles of all-time, Social Bookmarking Dos and Don’ts.

SEO Tip #11: Sign Up for a (Free) Google Webmaster Tools Account

Because all entrepreneurs are good at finding free or low-cost tools to help grow their businesses, it surprises me whenever a small company owner tells me he or she doesn’t have a free Google Webmaster Tools Account. Sure, this tool (like many others) is capable of providing website owners with too much information. But on the flip side, you don’t actually have to look at it all—and the stuff you REALLY need is nicely presented on the same dashboard interface. On a single screen, the uber-geeks at Google will allow site owners to view most popular search terms, number of links back to their site (and where they come from), the top 5 most important key terms within their content, which pages are officially indexed by Google, and any dead links the site might have. Logging into Google Webmaster Tools for five minutes per day, three times per week is a great way for even the most inexperienced site owner to quickly and easily spot any changes—positive or negative—in SEO performance.

SEO Tip #12: Protect the SEO Results You’ve Already Earned

At some point around the age of 5, I noticed my dad had a bedtime routine. Every night he would turn off the TV, grab a quick snack, then walk to the back of the house and wiggle the doorknob. I remember asking him about this routine, and his reply was “Never go to sleep until you know the back door is locked.” Although these words were meaningless to me back then, their value was brought to light earlier this past year, when I literally lost every bit of SEO work I had ever done. Over the course of about a month I was banned from search engines, kicked out of multiple social networking programs, and lost my best performing links . . . all because I stopped checking the back door.

In my mad rush to build a high-traffic website, I got sloppy and let my computer become infected with a virus—a virus which eventually made its way onto the server where my website was hosted. For about six weeks, visitors to my website were redirected to any number of shady and semi-legal offshore websites (gambling, porn, pyramid schemes, whatever), which caused my site to be banned from enough places where it eventually ceased to exist. During the recovery process I became a member of a website security blog, and received a great 2-part recommendation from one of its primary contributors: 1) spend a few bucks on a two REALLY good virus checkers, and 2) run them BOTH in Safe Mode once per week on the computer you use to manage your website. Today, I use Malware Bytes and SuperAntiSpyware every Friday night, and thankfully have been able to recapture at least some of my former SEO glory.

Comments? Questions? Feel free to reply to this post. Otherwise, a Retweet (button at the very beginning of this article), Stumble, Digg or Facebook mention (below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

4 Ridiculous Myths About Small Company Webinars

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:19:20 +0000

A few weeks ago I was catching up on my industry reading, when I came across a consultant-generated white paper called 9 Management Practices for Exceptional Webinars. For someone who conducts a marketing-related Webinar at least twice per month within my own small company, I thought this article would be a quick way to pick up a few pointers. But as I browsed the Table of Contents, I realized the report’s 31 thesis-equivalent pages were not written for small companies like mine, but for “Best in Class” firms who were being advised to do things like:

Assemble cross-functional Webinar teams;
Invest in Webinar project plans;
Involve third party vendors;
Purchase Pay-per-Click advertising; and
Involve telemarketing firms to follow up with attendees.

And almost immediately, something occurred to me. With big company consultants scaring the hell out of people, it’s no wonder more small companies don’t use Webinars in their Marketing strategy.

The fact is, for a few hundred dollars and four hours worth of time, any company—regardless of size—can run a successful Webinar. And as a first step in getting you to believe me, I would like to start by dispelling a few myths about the small company Webinar process.

Myth #1: You Have to Spend a Ton of Money.

Sure, there are a handful of massive Webinar providers who require year-long contracts and $30,000 down payments. But for every industry giant there is a smaller provider waiting in the wings, offering the exact same features and service for a fraction of the cost and commitment. One in particular that comes to mind is iLinc Web and Video Conferencing, where my company gets the same bells and whistles as the big guys offer—automated registration, reminder emails, free recording, unlimited events, and so on—for about $400 per month.

Myth #2: You Need an Entire ‘Team’ of People.

Contrary to the white paper I mentioned previously, participation from Marketing, Management, Sales, Customer Service and Finance (huh?) is not required to host a successful Webinar. In fact, to host a Webinar you really only need two things: a presenter, and a coordinator. And the division of work? Simple. The presenter creates the slides and delivers the presentation, while the coordinator works behind the scenes to set up the Webinar software, monitor the Webinar when it’s running, and handle the recorded version once it’s done. It sounds easy . . . because it IS easy.

Myth #3: You Need to Sell Something During Your Webinar.

One of the most frequent objections I hear from small company managers who avoid using Webinars is “I’m just not good at selling things.” However, the real question when deciding whether to host a Webinar should be “Am I good at TEACHING things?” Due to their ridiculously low cost, Webinars shouldn’t be viewed as sales presentations, but as opportunities to collect names of people who are interested in what you have to offer.

For Example: if your company sells popsicles, the title of your Webinar shouldn’t be 10 Reasons to Buy Popsicles from My Company. A much better approach would be to present something like The History of the Grapesickle or How to Eat a Popsicle Before it Melts All Over Your Hand. When it comes to Webinars, educational presentations should always be chosen over dog-and-pony shows.

The point is this: if you offer some clever and interesting education in exchange for a bit of contact information, you can always follow up later.

Myth #4: A Webinar is Considered a Failure if a Large Number of People Don’t Show Up.

If there is one aspect of planning and delivering Webinars that executives have the most trouble with, it is this: about 40% of registrants will make absolutely no effort to actually attend the event. But the good news is, other than denting the ego of the speaker, these absentee registrants are completely irrelevant when it comes to evaluating the success (or failure) of a Webinar event. Sure, a massive live audience can increase the amount of feedback and questions. But the fact is, whether or not they actually show up, you still have their contact information—and contact information is THE most valuable piece of this entire equation. Plus, if you are truly concerned about educating the 40% who didn’t show up, you can simply record the Webinar event (a free service provided by most Webinar platforms) and send them a link to the recorded version later.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to reply to this post, and be sure to include a link back to your own website or blog . . . because linkbacks are SEO gold, people.

Otherwise, Social Bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Retweet (button at the top of the article), Stumble or Digg (buttons below) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

When Customer Input Doesn’t Matter: The Myth of Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:28:14 +0000

Over the years I have worked for several small companies that were firm believers in customer surveys. In the eyes of these particular businesses, there was nothing a company could not ask a customer. Whether it was an idea for a new product, an improvement to an existing product, a search for marketing advice or a simple customer satisfaction exercise, these firms would not hesitate to commission a survey to dozens—or in some cases thousands—of people.

Although I happily complied with each and every request, I was always conflicted as to whether or not the process truly provided any value. Obviously any feedback you can get from someone qualified to give it is valuable. But does this feedback come with a price? And are there caveats to look out for—caveats that could call into question the validity and value of the data you receive? The answer in this situation is ‘Yes’ in both cases. The fact is, customer satisfaction surveys often result in few major changes to the way a company does business, for the three critical reasons:

1) Writing Good Survey Questions is Not as Easy As it Looks – Because there are entire books and semester-long MBA courses dedicated to the topic, I will mention only at a high level that it takes a trained and experienced marketing professional to write a valuable, properly structured and non-leading customer survey. Most small companies grossly under-estimate the effect a few poorly written questions can have on the outcome of a survey, and pass off question-writing duties to marketing people who do not have the training or the experience to handle it. The result? Wasting both time and money reacting to problems that don’t really exist.

2) These Days, Nobody Goes Out of their Way to Tell You They’re Happy – Excluding any pre-arranged incentive for participation (i.e. free or discounted products, special coupons, and so on) the primary motivator for people who actually complete customer satisfaction surveys is, ironically, dis-satisfaction. No matter how much work a researcher puts in trying to make surveys fun, shorter and easier to complete, the fact remains that a customer who is satisfied will rarely tell you as much, for one simple reason: customers do not feel obligated to offer feedback when your product, service or company does exactly what they expected it to do.

Let’s take a simple example from Sales. When a sales person is delivering his or her sales pitch, there are three emotional states a prospect can be in: 1) impressed and receptive, 2) unimpressed and confrontational, or 3) indifferent. The emotional state most conducive to closing the deal is impressed and receptive, but every great sales person knows the worst-case scenario is actually . . . indifferent. Why? Because a sale cannot be made to someone who genuinely does not care. In many ways, the same principle applies to return rates for customer satisfaction surveys: people who have no emotional response one way or the other (those who are truly ‘satisfied’) will simply not participate.

3) People are Smart Enough to Know You Will Use Their Feedback to Make More Money – Although you might tell customers that completing your survey is in their best interest through things like ‘increased quality’ and ‘improved service,’ today’s customer is savvy enough to know your only objective is to increase the profitability of your company. No matter how you spin it, most customers understand that what you are asking them to do is donate their time so you can earn a bigger paycheck.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few paragraphs explaining all of the reasons why customer satisfaction surveys do not work or are not completed. But despite the title of this post, I do believe there are some things you can do as a marketer to improve your results:

Get Professional Help – To avoid collecting bad information or the wrong information, give serious consideration to either hiring a consultant to assist, or contracting out the customer satisfaction surveys to a professional market research firm. Most small companies can’t afford to have a full-time Marketing Researcher on staff, and hiring outside help is an acceptable alternative.
Offer Tangible Incentives for Completion – To increase your completion rate, offer participants something they actually want—free services or merchandise, discounts on their next purchase, access to a special package, or something similar. No one is going to get excited about being entered into a drawing with thousands of other people for yet another iPod Nano or a $50 gift card to your company store (see the definition of ‘Expected Value’ for more information), but a double-digit discount percentage off of their next order? Much more tangible . . . and easier to calculate.
Know Who Your Respondents will Be . . . and Embrace Them – As mentioned above, it is likely with any Customer Satisfaction Survey that most of your responses will come from people who are on either side of the emotional pendulum—either extremely happy or extremely angry. Why not use this emotion to your advantage? Actively seek feedback from these groups by writing questions that spur them to respond. Cater to dissatisfied customers by admitting your company or product’s faults, and opening the door for them to help you address specific issues. For happy customers, encourage them to explain exactly why their experience with your company has been so positive, and ask for advice on how to communicate their story to others. Admitting to yourself who your real respondents will be is the first step in getting data that you can actually use.

Being an amateur Economist, I have always been a firm believer that the largest measure of customer satisfaction—and the only one that really matters—is bottom-line Revenue. If the market is pleased with what you are doing and how you are doing it, they will purchase more of what you offer. Conversely, if the market is unhappy with your product, your service or your approach, they will purchase less of what you offer. The point is, when you’re running a for-profit business there is no vote or opinion that matters more than that of the economy.

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Strategic Self-Promotion: 8 Rules for Marketing Yourself Internally at Your Company

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:23:33 +0000

On occasion, the workplace can be a confusing and frustrating place for a small company manager. Have you ever volunteered to lead an upcoming high-profile initiative, only to see someone else be selected for no apparent reason? Have you ever interviewed for an internal position higher on the organizational chart, then not been selected even though you meet 100% of the requirements? Have you ever added a big number to the company’s bottom line and not received any credit for your efforts—even though it was YOUR hard work and innovative thought process that made it happen? When these situations arise it is easy to assume that your work is not appreciated, or that something (or someone) internally is working against you. But more often than not, the answer is much simpler: small company owners and CEOs are notoriously bad at saying “Thank You” and giving outward credit to people who work hard for them.

So exactly what does marketing yourself and your accomplishments entail? Should you openly brag about yourself to your co-workers, point out every good thing you’ve ever done to your boss, and hand the owner or CEO of your small company an up-to-date resume? Not exactly. But I am hoping you understand that a little periodic self-promotion—done in a subtle way—can help you get where you want to be from a career standpoint. With that in mind, I have assembled a few of my most valuable ruls for marketing yourself and your accomplishments within your organization; no matter what you happen to do for a living.

Rule #1: Understand Your Audience. Whether you manage a marketing department, a product development department, the Accounting function or the entire operation, there is a principle for marketing yourself that is more valuable than the rest: know who you’re speaking to. Does your boss prefer to communicate via e-mail or verbally? Does she respond better to statistics or written reports? Does he get more excited to know that the company has saved money or made money? What time of day is your boss most open to a quick note or conversation? Knowing this information can do nothing but help you in the long run.

Rule #2: Establish a Regular Pattern for Your Communication. Instead of surprising your boss with a positive report when she least expects it—and is most likely to forget—establish a regular pattern of positive communication. Early afternoon on Friday is typically a good time to send a positive report, because your boss might actually have time to read and absorb it. But whatever time you choose, be consistent from week to week. In time, your supervisor will not only come to expect your “Friday Good News,” she will actually look forward to it.

Rule #3: Paint Only the Big Picture. When you finally decide to approach your manager with some positive news, be careful to not inundate him with details. Statements like “our most recent product was released 3 months early” or “employee turnover in my departments has been cut in half over the last two years” are about as detailed as you should get when it comes to your personal accomplishments. You can always offer to provide your manager with more information at a later time if requested. And there’s one more advantage to leaving out the details—it gives your boss an excuse to stop by your office for a POSITIVE conversation about your performance, which of course we all need more of these days.

Rule #4: Present the Good, but Resist the Temptation to Embellish. Once you become comfortable communicating your accomplishments to your boss on a regular basis, it actually becomes fun. But at the same time, it can be tempting to push the boundaries and blur the line between what is expected in your role and what is considered an extraordinary accomplishment. Resist the temptation to point out that you met your revenue goal for the year, or that you completed a major project on time, or that a planning document you have been working on for several months is now complete. As difficult as these activities can be, do not forget they are an expected part of your job.

Rule #5: If You Can’t Back it Up or Don’t Believe it 100%, Don’t Report It. I can’t explain why, but it has been my experience that small company owners and CEOs are inherently suspicious of good news. Maybe it’s because they’ve been burned so many times in the past. Or maybe it’s because managing by exception (only communicating with employees when there’s a problem) is a more comfortable style of management. Either way, you can be 100 percent certain that the receiver of your positive report will, from time to time, question you about it—extensively. If you’re not comfortable walking through your report step-by-step with the person who signs your paychecks, don’t bother.

Rule #6: Use Charts and Graphs—In Color. If you actually want your boss to read what you’re making available to her, try to avoid lengthy written reports, documents with paragraphs, and even reports with long sentences. Wherever possible, presenting information in a succinct, graphical-based format makes your news easy to review, understand and absorb. And in the absence of charts and graphs, don’t discount the value of a quick e-mail with a handful of short bullets. We all have a person in our lives who sends e-mail that we immediately delete or archive, because the message is usually too long to read. Don’t become that person! And using a splash of color once in awhile in your charts and graphs (don’t push it) immediately indicates to your boss that your information is important, and that you put some time and effort into assembling it.

Rule #7: Take the Opportunity to Make Your Boss Look Good. Are you looking for a sure-fire way to make your boss excited to receive your regular positive updates? Focus on providing timely, succinct and well-formatted reports she can use to enhance her reputation with HER boss or peers. As you create your reports, ask yourself this question: “Based on the content and format of this report, could my boss pass this on to the owner of my company, or to an executive from another small company?” If the answer is no, spend a little more time working on it. A good manager can obviously complete his job at a high level . . . but a good employee figures out ways to make his boss look good in the process.

Rule #8: Market Beyond Your Own Department. Here is a fact that might surprise you: your direct supervisor is not the only person you should be marketing yourself to. Although formal and written communication to anyone but your direct supervisor could land you in hot water, there is no rule against mentioning you and your departments’ successes to people outside of the department. Today’s peers could be tomorrow’s employees, managers, or even company owners—and the more people who know you’re extremely good at what you do, the better.

As a small company manager there are literally dozens of reports you are expected to maintain and turn in at any given time. But today I need you to add one more report to your regular routine—the one that highlights YOU as a great manager. If you regularly go the extra mile or continually find innovative ways to bring revenue into the company, you have the right—and the obligation—to let someone know about it. If you do something great for your company, don’t be afraid to tell someone!

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Is it a Lead or Not? A Marketer’s Guide to Communicating with Sales

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:57:56 +0000

Being in charge of filling a Sales pipeline is a tough spot for any Marketing person. Not only are legitimate sales opportunities difficult to find, but when it comes to actually defining what a ‘lead’ looks like, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. There are literally dozens of ways to classify incoming inquiries generated by outbound marketing efforts, and every marketing and sales person has their favorite; which inevitably leads to two things: 1) Sales accusing Marketing of being incompetent, and 2) Marketing accusing Sales of being lazy.

The definition of the word ‘lead,’ over and above everything else, is the single most common reason Marketing and Sales people don’t mingle at the company picnic. And as a 17+ year marketing professional I can say with some degree of certainty that in most cases, it is our fault. Contrary to what we learned in the 1990s, a trade show attendee who swaps a business card for a blinky pen is not something a good sales person should be interested in. Neither is a name poached from a website, or the spouse of a friend who knows someone in the Purchasing Department at Company X. If we as Marketing people are ever going to regain the confidence of our counterparts in Sales, we need to understand the difference between things that feed a Sales pipeline, and things that should be feeding a paper shredder.

The Name

The first and therefore least significant thing a marketing person can pass along to sales is called a Name, and is defined as follows:

General contact information, acquired from a general source, where no context is given.

Note that use of the word ‘general’ twice in the above definition is not a mistake, but rather a way to diminish the perceived value of a Name. Marketing people acquire Names from any number of places—business card drops at a trade shows, website downloads, mailing lists, industry association member registers, and so on—but the manner in which a Name was acquired does not increase its value. Most Sales people are savvy enough to acquire a Name on their own, and have every right to be insulted when a Marketing person attempts to give them one and pass it off as something that has potential revenue attached to it.

The Lead

The second level of inbound inquiry, and the one most people are familiar with by name, is a Lead. The definition of a Lead—which applies to most companies and in most situations—is as follows:

The name and direct contact information of someone within your target demographic who is looking for more information, and has given your company permission to follow up with them.

As outlined above, there are four important components that must exist before Marketing can declare something a Lead:

Direct contact information;
Confirmation that the Name is within your target demographic;
A desire on behalf of the contact for more information; and
Permission to follow up.

What happens to a Lead after Marketing receives it varies from company to company. Some firms enter them into the Marketing ‘machine’ to receive automated follow up, some companies pass them to an Inside Sales-type of role for cultivation, and some companies pass them directly to an Outside Sales function. But wherever they are sent, Leads are the second-most valuable thing a Marketer can uncover, with the most valuable being . . .

The Opportunity!

The third type of marketing-driven inquiry—and the most difficult one to generate—is the Opportunity. An Opportunity is something Sales people expect, Marketing executives demand, and professional marketers rarely achieve. The definition of an Opportunity is as follows:

The name and contact information of someone who has expressed interest in making a purchase from you, has an established budget, and is either an influencer in the decision-making process or the primary decision-maker.

Based on this definition, in order to legitimately refer to an inquiry as an Opportunity, the following three things must exist in addition to the components listed in the previous section:

A demonstrated need for (or want of) whatever your company has to offer;
Verification that the money exists to purchase what is being offered; and
Proof that the contact can either make the decision, or bend the ear of someone who can.

Much like the word ‘general’ when referring to a Name, the words demonstrated, verification and proof carry special meaning here. All too often, Marketing people get caught in what I refer to as the Think-Feel-Believe Trap when passing prospects onto Sales—”I think they need what we offer, I feel the client has the money, and I believe the contact is a decision-maker.” If the prospect didn’t clearly and specifically state his or her need, budget and decision-making power, what you have is nothing more than a Lead, which will eventually a) require significantly more effort to close, and b) make your Sales Department mistrust you.

The bottom line is, filling a Sales pipeline as a marketer is about more than simply keeping the Sales staff busy. It’s also about maintaining your reputation and credibility with the people who depend upon you for their paychecks. The most sure-fire way to ensure a successful relationship between Marketing and Sales is for the departments to speak the same language, and hopefully this article will help. That way, Marketing and Sales can get back to arguing about issues that REALLY matter—like why Sales people never use the standard PowerPoint templates we make, or why Marketing people refuse to create brochures for products and services that don’t actually exist.

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Four Marketing Technologies That Are Ruining the Internet

Eric_Rudolf — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:14:21 +0000

As I look back on my 17+ years as a professional marketer, it occurs to me how far we have come. Once popular marketing methods like direct mail, trade shows, cold-calling, and print advertising have been completely replaced by Internet-based technologies—technologies which are not only less expensive, but much easier to use. Today, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can become a marketer. And because of this, the Internet we previously promised to love, honor and cherish is quickly becoming the electronic equivalent of a public toilet. Ah, the joy of technological advancement.

So why is our once beloved Internet turning into a place customers fear to tread? Has the Internet joined airport bathrooms and Dancing with the Stars as things that were invented for good, but used for evil? I believe the answer is a resounding “yes,” primarily due to the use—or more accurately, the overuse—of four marketing-based technologies.

Technology #1: The Automated Friend Finder

Just a few days ago I was doing my twice-weekly Twitter maintenance, evaluating the new people who chose to follow me, when I noticed a Twitter account that nearly pushed me off of my chair. This particular account was following over 96,000 people, but had only 17 followers. Even more shocking was the fact that the account had been activated less than three days prior. Although I didn’t think about taking a screen shot at the time, I logged back in a few minutes ago and found another account in my queue that was well on its way (See Screen Shot Below—Click to Enlarge: a pace of 1,776 follows in 5.5 hours will add 23,000 follows to this account every three days).

For many ‘professional’ marketers, automated friend finders are nothing more than an opportunity to score some quick follow-backs by mass-soliciting thousands of untargeted people per day. In the interest of full disclosure, I need to mention that I actually use an automated friend finding tool. It’s called SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) and I use it for three reasons: 1) it saves me time, 2) it’s cheap, and 3) it’s ethical. Instead of attempting to ‘game’ the Twitter API by allowing me to follow tens of thousands of people per day, SocialOoomph will find a maximum of 40 in any 24-hour period. And before it starts searching for follows on my behalf, I have to tell it who to look for. (I actively seek to follow consultants, business bloggers, company owners, managers and business publications.)

Technology #2: Social Bookmarking

Back in May of this year, I took a great deal of heat from bloggers and web designers when I wrote and published an article titled Social Bookmarking: Dos and Don’ts. In this article I had the nerve to suggest that maybe—just maybe—marketers would be better served narrowing the list of social bookmarking options they offer to website visitors (I suggested no more than six options be presented). My primary argument was that web marketers were ignoring a founding principle of human behavior: a person who is given too many choices will almost never make one. This article quickly generated dozens of flaming emails, most asking the question “What if my visitors don’t support any of the six bookmarks I choose?” And to every emailer, I sent the same reply: “Get to know your target audience.” (See Screen Shot to the Left—Click to Enlarge: 30 social bookmarking icons in one block? The perfect combination of distracting and overwhelming.)

The fact is, websites and blogs were never meant to look like the front fender of Tony Stewart’s #14 car. When marketers give website visitors this many options to bookmark content, they might as well be saying “I have no idea who you are, and I don’t actually care.” A good marketer will know enough about his or her target audience to figure out which social bookmarking technologies they support, and which ones they don’t.

Technology #3: The Automated Comment Poster

After nearly one full year as a blogger, I am happy to say I have almost 1,000 heartfelt, well-constructed comments on my posts. Unfortunately, I have had to sort through nearly 24,000 spam comments to find them. Sometimes, these unwanted comments are nothing more than overt solicitations for mail order Cialis or Eastern European porn sites. But more often than not, comments on my blog postings are Trojan horse-type sentences like “Great post—thanks for writing!” and “Wow, I never thought of it like this before!” designed only to acquire free linkbacks from my site. (See Screen Shot Below—Click to Enlarge: If you’re going to try and steal a linkback from a blogger, PLEASE try to be more creative than this.)

Unfortunately, the misuse of automated comment posting technology fills blogs with tens of thousands of meaningless, poorly written and un-heart felt comments per day. And sadly, it’s not just the amateurs who are at fault. The worst offender on my blog was a guy named Bill Bartmann, who literally spammed my blog every day for two months straight, until I finally emailed him directly and asked him to stop. Important to note here is not only the fact that Bill is stinking rich, but has appeared on CNBC’s “Big Idea” with Donny Deutsch, and with Neil Cavuto on FoxNews. Come on, Bill, you’re better than that.

Technology #4: Affiliate Advertising

For this technology, I need to clarify something before I continue: most bloggers and website owners have earned the right to make a few bucks. Web hosting costs money, the tools we use aren’t free, and eventually, most of us would like to get paid a little something for our time. That said, ethical affiliate advertisers are being painted in a negative light by the underhanded ones who regularly practice techniques like link disguising, direct link tweeting, and outright click baiting.

Another major issue surrounding affiliate advertising is something I like to call ad saturation. Case in point: Darren Rowse, owner of problogger.net and arguably the most famous blogger on the planet, has over 20 revenue-generating links—just on his home page. This morning I noted 13 image ads and at least 9 paid links listed as ‘resources’ or ‘recommendations’ in his footer. Today, navigating a website or blog without clicking on an ad requires the forethought of a chess Grand Master, the alertness of an MMA fighter, and the steady hand of a heart surgeon. This is hardly the Internet we all envisioned for ourselves ten years ago.

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12 Essential Sections of a Great Marketing Plan + Template

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:06:21 +0000

I’ll never forget the combined feeling of excitement and panic the first time my boss asked me to create a Marketing Plan for a new product. While part of me was excited by the fact I had finally ‘arrived’ as a professional in my field—much like a doctor being asked to treat a first patient—the remainder of me was scared to death, because in reality I had absolutely no idea what a usable, real-world Marketing Plan actually looked like.

Sure, I had created a handful of semi-meaningless plans while earning my MBA, but this situation was different. I was being asked to create a comprehensive roadmap that would be used by over a dozen people to release, market, and make money on a brand new product. And unfortunately, I didn’t have a clue where to begin.

Attempting to climb out of the hole I dug for myself, I spent the following evening at the local bookstore, flipping through everything from college textbooks to home-based business manuals. Although I came across a number of ideas for sections to include in my plan, the closest I came to finding the parameters of a ‘standard’ marketing plan was information in a textbook on something called The Four Ps of Marketing . . . the worst over-simplification of the Marketing process ever documented in textbook form.

It was after this evening of research and several extended conversations with colleagues that I realized something: in a smaller company environment, there is no such thing as a standard marketing plan. And over a decade later, I now understand why: because every small company executive and stakeholder who ever commissioned a marketing plan was looking for something different.

Since the research project I conducted nearly a decade and a half ago I have created hundreds of marketing plans, ranging from a single page to well over 50 pages—not counting supporting documentation. Although each is unique in its own right, I have found over the years that the list of ‘most commonly included information’ in these plans can be narrowed down to a short list of only 12 manageable sections, as follows:

A High-Level Description of the Product or Service
A Description and Size Estimate of the Target Market
Competitive Differentiators
Proposed Marketing Messaging
Packaging, Pricing and/or Bundling Strategies
Marketing Vehicles Used
Required Changes to the Company Website
Initial Rollout Activities
Ongoing Marketing Initiatives
Projected Sales Volumes and Margins
Required Year 1 Marketing Budget
Product Development Assumptions

To further explain each of these marketing plan sections, I have created a downloadable Marketing Plan Template in PDF format, which you may take free of charge. The file is 4 pages in length, and approximately 150k in size. Please follow this link to download it:

tool-the-12-essential-sections-of-a-new-product-marketing-plan

In exchange for this tool, I ask only for one of four things: a Stumble, a Digg, a Retweet, or a quick visit to one of my Google ad sponsors. Handy buttons are provided for the first three, and the fourth is relatively easy—just follow one of the three links in the ad block above the numbered list. Thank you.

Internet Marketers: The New MVPs for Small Companies

Eric_Rudolf — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:15:07 +0000

As recently as ten years ago, Marketing Departments were widely viewed as little more than service bureaus for most organizations. In the eyes of many businesses, marketing existed only to perform low-level tasks like generate marketing collateral, assemble presentations, and coordinate trade shows. I know this not because I read about it, or because someone told me, but because I was there. During the mid to late 1990s, I watched as companies large and small maintained under-staffed (and under-skilled) Marketing departments. I listened to people tell me how easy my job was. I talked to sales people who were getting things like cell phones and support staff and car allowances, while I was stuck in a cube and forced to use the oldest computer in the building.

Then the Internet happened.

And literally overnight, the view of Marketing’s role in a growing organization changed. Small, innovative companies leapfrogged market leaders by realizing that building brand awareness, generating interest, making sales, and developing loyalty could be done without meeting customers face-to-face. Hiring plans were modified to include investments in high-level marketing personnel who could build skilled and agile marketing teams. Marketing processes were changed to leverage the latest technologies and perform functions sales people were once responsible for—reaching potential customers, sorting through them, and identifying those who are ready to purchase. And I finally got an office, complete with a door and the most expensive computer in the building.

But although life is good for many of us, even in 2009 it seems there are a number of companies who haven’t caught up yet. Many of you reading this article work for or manage organizations who still do not give Marketing—specifically, Internet marketing—credit for being able to do anything but send mass email and publish web pages. If your company is having trouble getting its Internet marketing efforts off the ground, here are five steps you can take to start moving in the right direction:

Step 1: Admit That Marketing is No Longer Overhead. First and foremost, supporting a successful Internet marketing effort requires a company-wide change in attitude. Until you begin to view the dollars spent in this area as investments and not overhead, your Internet marketing department will always be set up for failure. Internet Marketers need to be reassured that they won’t be let go (and that their budgets won’t be scaled back) the minute business slows down. Plus, a good Internet marketer has the ability to make a living with or without you. So if you don’t make sure they feel like a valuable part of the organization, they’ll just leave.

Step 2: Hire a High-Level Marketing Resource First, not a Rookie. Instead of building a marketing team from the bottom up, find an experienced management-level Internet marketer first. Companies often become enamored with marketing people who have experience in a specific industry, or who are specialists in certain types of marketing. But in this case, your search should focus on people who are familiar with a broad range of Internet marketing initiatives, and have a track record of experimenting with new methods and technologies.

Step 3: Allow Your Internet Marketers the Freedom to Experiment. Because marketing technologies and audiences change so rapidly, it is critical that your marketing personnel have the freedom to try new things, and the reassurance to know that an occasional failure is OK—as long as a solid business case was made up front. Not every Internet marketing campaign is going to be a hit. But on the flip side, there are millions of dollars to be made by companies who can figure out creative ways to reach a previously untapped market. Allowing your Internet marketing team some room to roam once in awhile will pay back your company ten times over.

Step 4: Invest in Ongoing Training and and Networking. To ensure your company is utilizing the latest in Internet marketing technology and techniques, it is critical that you support the department’s thirst for knowledge. In the Internet marketing world, knowledge is often tightly held; passed from person to person like a Mayan legend. Part of running an Internet marketing department is to support the transfer of this knowledge through conferences, workshops, and professional memberships in networking organizations.

Step 5: Dare to Dream. To run a successful Internet marketing department, you have to understand the rules of the game have changed. Given the databases, techniques and technologies that Internet marketers have access to today, almost any type of marketing campaign you can envision is now a possibility. Once your Internet marketing team is in place, don’t be afraid to challenge them by thinking big.

Conclusion

Visionary company owners and managers understand that embracing the value of Internet marketing can allow a company to reach unreachable audiences, generate a steady stream of interest, and compete with companies much larger in size. But in order to accomplish these things, you must be prepared both mentally and financially to not only assemble an Internet marketing effort, but support it successfully for the long-term. The fact is, there have been more marketing-related innovations in the past six weeks than there have been sales-related innovations in the past six decades. Gaining a customer has grown far beyond phone calls and personal appearances, into a comprehensive strategy that includes multiple customer touches in dozens of different forms.

Companies from two-person shops to Fortune 500 members are driving more revenue (and significantly more margin) by shifting their outbound focus to targeted, quick-response Internet-based marketing methods like social networking, PPC, blogging, direct email, organic and paid search, e-newsletters, podcasting, webinars, portals and downloads. And the Internet Marketers who hang out at websites like Sphinn and Search Engine Land are leading the way—pushing search, marketing and Internet technology to places your brain won’t allow you to go.

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The 5 Biggest Lies in Internet Marketing

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:55:16 +0000

Being a full-time blogger comes with a lot of baggage. Actively maintaining two websites, six email accounts and memberships to a dozen social networking sites is definitely fun, but certainly more work than I ever imagined it would be. Although these tools are great for keeping in touch with readers and fellow bloggers, they also come with a catch: I receive more than my share of incoming junk messages. Not surprisingly, most of these messages are related to Internet marketing, and claims of easy money and immediate wealth. Some are mildly annoying, some are ridiculous, and some are unethical. But whatever category they land in, there are five Internet marketing claims which are outright lies, and amateur Internet marketers need to be protected from them.

“I Made $5,000 per Week on a Social Networking Site!”

There is a reason so many people are convinced there is money to be made in social networking: because Internet con artists still claim to be able to generate six figures per year on sites like LinkedIn and FaceBook. Sure, social networking sites have a number of great business uses like distributing news, coordinating user groups and augmenting your internal database. But actually generating a few dollars worth of direct revenue from them—much less thousands of dollars per week—is not only unlikely, it is impossible. Unless, of course, you own a social networking site.

“You Can Make a Great Living Working Out of Your Own Home!”

Here’s a question: if you make such a great living working at home, why do you spend 12 hours per day trying to talk other people into doing your job? Because your home-based ‘business’ is actually a recruitment-focused pyramid scheme. If you are considering responding to one of these work at home solicitations, be sure to read 9 Signs You’re Involved in a Pyramid Scheme first.

“I Can Show You How to Get 2,000 Twitter Followers Per Day!”

I don’t mean to ruin the mystique surrounding Twitter, but if someone dedicates an entire day to it, acquiring 2,000 followers in 24 hours isn’t exactly the equivalent of splitting the atom. Even if you have only 15 minutes to spare, there are plenty of free or low-cost automated Twitter applets that can dig through the Twitter database and figure out which members are most likely to follow you back. The only real thing ‘professional’ Twitter builders plan on showing you is a form to enter your credit card information.

“I Made 400% Net Profit in the Last 60 Days In Affiliate Marketing!”

Affiliate marketers are a lot like poker players. Although two-thirds will claim they are making a living doing what they do, the reality is less than 3 out of 100 are getting paid minimum wage for their time, much less making any sort of ‘living’ at their craft. And if an Affiliate Marketer did figure out a system for pulling in massive amounts of cash, why would they offer to tell you about it?

Anything Related to Making ‘Big Money’ with Pay-per-Click

As I mention in a previous post, When Pay-per-Click (PPC) is a Bad Idea, PPC is the only marketing method where companies can be absolutely guaranteed to pay MORE than market value for each and every click. In addition, Pay-per-Click advertising has been around too long for anyone to find an exploitable hole or unique strategy that would allow excessive revenue generation. PPC should be no more than 10% of any company’s marketing budget, for a very good reason: there is very little value to be had anymore.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Feel free to reply to this post. Or alternatively, I’ll take any sort of social bookmark you want to give—a Digg, a Sphinn, a Stumble or a Retweet would obviously be appreciated. And of course, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing you may pay a quick visit to one of my Google ad sponsors. Thank you!

6 Reasons to Stop Using Direct Mail

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:32:22 +0000

This past summer I spent three days at DMA 2008, the world’s largest annual marketing conference. Due to the expense involved in attending (a $2,000 registration fee + air and three nights of hotel) this was actually my first DMA conference. Being a professional marketer since the early 1990s I have seen a great deal of change within my profession, and expected the nearly three-hour opening session to be filled with teasers for new and exciting marketing-related concepts and technologies. However, I was surprised—if not completely disappointed—to find that DMA’s primary focus, even today, is their long and storied history with direct mail.

As an aside . . . shortly before I posted this article, I paid a visit to Google to do some testing. For each of the search phrases direct mail, direct mail marketing, direct mailing, mail marketing and direct mail marketing help, the DMA website came up on the first page of organic results. However, the site showed up on page 3 for search engine marketing, page 9 for email marketing, page 13 for Internet marketing, and nowhere in the first 20 pages for the phrase social network marketing.

I will be the first to admit there are still a few pieces of mail I look forward to: the rebate checks, the Restoration Hardware catalogs, our monthly township newsletter, and my quarterly Social Security statement . . . which unfortunately details exactly how little money I have made during my life so far. But other than these few items, anything I receive via mail—no matter how colorful or attractive—is dropped directly into my paper recycling bin. As a professional marketer I don’t believe I am alone in my aversion to direct mail, and have come up with six reasons why direct mail should assume its rightful place in the Marketing Museum next to the fax machine, the printed coupon, and the trade show.

Reason #1: Mail Pieces Cost Money to Design. With all of the advancements in software and technology, anyone with a computer can lay out an effective email, write a Twitter post, or upload a web page. But only a graphic designer with a $1,000 piece of software and a $4,000 Mac can design a direct mail piece. . . . and charge $50 an hour to do it.

Reason #2: There is No Opt-In or Spam Law for Direct Mail. The lack of any sort of direct mail legislation allows direct mailers to not only bombard people on their lists, but also sell their lists to other companies who do the exact same thing. What is The Direct Marketing Association doing in response? Fighting like hell to make sure ideas like the ‘Do Not Mail List’ never see the light of day. If you have some extra money, DMA will even let you chip in for their Congressional lobbyists.

Reason #3: Stamps are Expensive. Targeted e-newsletters can be sponsored for ten cents per name. Email houses can send mass blasts for less than two cents per name. Twitter and social networking posts are free, and so are blog entries. And the price of postage stamps just went up. Again.

Reason #4: Direct Mail Campaign Stats Aren’t Real Stats. Direct mailers throw around numbers like Response Rate, ROI, Shelf Life and Pass-Along Rate as if they were cold hard facts. But in reality most are nothing more than educated guesses, based on industry-wide surveys of other companies who do direct mail. Or maybe, just maybe, the catalog I threw in the garbage WAS actually read by 3.6 other people between my kitchen counter and the trash bin?

Reason #5: Direct Mail Leaves No Room for Changes. Depending upon the industry your company is in, a direct mail piece can be outdated within days of being sent. Publishing a price, description or sales promotion on a direct mail piece means you’re stuck with it for months, unless you want to bear the expense of re-sending a corrected version to the exact same audience. On the other hand, web pages and downloadable PDF files can be changed and published in real-time, and updated emails can be sent—and only to the people who actually opened your first email—for pennies.

Reason #6: Our Immediate Gratification Society. 80% of the responses to an email campaign will be received within the first 24 hours. At the end of that same period of time, your direct mail piece will still be in a bag somewhere, waiting to be sorted and placed on a stagecoach, or donkey, or mail truck, or whatever they use to deliver mail these days.

After extended discussions with a number of people who frequent this blog, I get the impression most professional marketers (if given the choice) would abandon direct mail entirely—if their companies would let them. It frightens me to think how many of my friends and colleagues are still being pushed toward direct mail by their organizations, when cheaper and more effective channels like email, search engine optimization, blogging and social networking are readily available. But eventually, the slumping economy will force most of them to drop direct mail as a marketing vehicle, whether they want to or not.

If you liked this article, please feel free to throw a social bookmark our way—we love Diggs, Stumbles and Retweets. Or, if social bookmarking isn’t your thing, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would be much appreciated as well. Thank you for your support!

A New Definition of Marketing for Small Companies?

Eric_Rudolf — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:43:19 +0000

Although the textbook authors at Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin might not agree, the definition of Marketing is not a static, catch-all descriptor that can be indiscriminately applied in any situation. Marketing is a sliding scale; a moving target that changes based on industry, audience, and most importantly company size. While larger firms can spend ridiculous amounts of money simply throwing their logo in people’s faces (a practice referred to as ‘branding’ . . . see Super Bowl for more details) small companies have no choice but to drive real and measurable results—and in many cases sales—from every single marketing initiative.

The point is, as small company owners and managers it is critical we maximize our marketing dollars by executing on initiatives that actually qualify as marketing . . . something much easier said than done. With this in mind, a few weeks ago I took it upon myself to create a NEW definition of small company marketing; one that more accurately reflected a small company’s need to a) spend wisely, and b) receive value in return for each marketing investment. Here is what I came up with:

Small Company Marketing: any initiative used to reach customers or potential customers that either results in an immediate sale, or directly and measurably shortens the sales cycle.

To see if my definition would hold up in the real world, I tested it using some of the more traditional, big-company things people often put into the ‘marketing’ bucket. The ten initiatives I used were as follows:

Collecting business cards in a fishbowl at a trade show.
Producing a corporate video for distribution on a website.
Issuing a press release announcing the hiring of a new CFO.
Sending a monthly customer newsletter.
Purchasing Pay-per-Click advertising.
Hosting a free speaking event.
Offering a free, downloadable white paper on a website.
Sponsoring a snack break at an industry conference.
Applying for and winning a “Best Places to Work” award.
Sending a new catalog to a rented mailing list.

Based on the definition given above, were there any initiatives here that didn’t count as ‘marketing’ in small companies? Surprisingly, there were five. When I applied my new definition of small company marketing to the list above, I discovered that numbers 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 do not pass the test. Aside from the fact that none of them directly result in sales, it would be difficult to claim they could even shorten a sales cycle. Taken aback by my findings, I showed them to a (skeptical) big-company friend who demanded answers as to why—and how—things like collecting business cards and winning awards can’t possibly be considered ‘marketing’ initiatives at small companies. Here is a portion of the email I sent her:

. . . regarding example #1, collecting business cards at a trade show might give your sales people a pile of names to follow up with, but without some sort of prequalification you can’t possibly claim these people are interested in what your company sells. In terms of example #2, corporate videos are nice, but rarely bring potential customers one step closer to buying something. Many people consider PR part of marketing (example #3), and in some cases it can be—but your customers don’t care about your new hires. Sticking your logo on a table tent at a trade show (example #4) is a pure branding initiative, and winning an employer award (example #5) might help you recruit better employees, but won’t generate additional business.

On the other hand, numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 do indeed qualify as marketing initiatives. Customer newsletters keep people on your list up-to-date on new releases, special promotions and upcoming sales. Pay-per-click drives interested parties to your website for more information and can shortening the sales cycle. Speaking events can educate potential customers on the benefits of your products and services, white papers are designed to present the challenges your products and services help solve, and catalog mailings will prompt interested parties to call, email, and ideally order something from you.

Hope this helps

The fact is, small companies rarely have the money or the head count to pursue non-revenue generating initiatives. But surprisingly, many small firms use a significant portion of their marketing budgets to do just that. Until someone can convince me otherwise (feel free to do so) I am going to begin using this new definition of small company marketing, and will convince everyone I know to do the same.

Agree or disagree with anything in this article? Feel free to post a reply. Also, social bookmarks are as good as currency here at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG, so a Digg, Stumble or Retweet would be very much appreciated. Or, if handing out social bookmarks isn’t your thing, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would also make us happy. Thank you!

New Rules for Direct Email Marketing

Eric_Rudolf — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:31:00 +0000

Since the middle of 2001, I would estimate I have booked, written, sent, and evaluated over $8 million in B2B and B2C direct email campaigns—promoting everything from enterprise software to educational services to retail products. Over this eight year period many things within the direct email landscape have changed, thanks in part to laws like The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (which laid out enforceable rules for content, unsubscribing and sending) and the increased availability of opt-in lists that anyone with a credit card can get their hands on. But while other Internet-based marketing methods like blogging, social networking and mobile device integration are rapidly advancing in sophistication and quality, I continue to see companies both small and large make the same direct email mistakes they were making almost a decade ago.

With the above in mind, here are five new rules for direct email marketing in 2010 and beyond. As with all posts at THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG.com, please feel free to throw us a social bookmark—Diggs, Stumbles and Retweets being our three favorites. Otherwise, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you!

Rule #1: Don’t Cram the Entire Message Into the Subject Line

Typing a short story into the Subject line of an email is something even my technology-inhibited grandparents are savvy enough to not do, but for some reason most companies still can’t help themselves. Case in point: earlier this morning I received the latest edition of the Weekly Marketing Bulletin via email, and the Subject line was:

Includes: The Top 10 Reasons Your Email Isn’t Being Delivered & How to Fix it

For those of you who aren’t willing to do it, I counted . . . there are almost 80 characters here. If your company doesn’t already have one in place, a good rule of thumb for a Subject line is 35 to 45 characters MAXIMUM. And as a sanity check, always send the email to yourself first, so you can see what it looks like in your Inbox. This particular email showed up in my Inbox pane as “Includes: The Top 10 Reasons Your In…” Hardly compelling.

Rule #2: Put the Important Information in Places People Will Read It

Anyone who has taken a marketing communications workshop in the last 5 years understands there is a pattern to how people read emails. As I recall, the order of information from top to bottom typically goes: 1) subject line, 2) email header and sub header, 3) linked text, 4) bold text, 5) anything in a bulleted list, and 6) P.S. line, if one exists. If the information you want to communicate isn’t in one or more of these places, there is a good chance no one will see it.

Rule #3: Take Advantage of the From Line

To this day, I can’t figure out why so many companies refuse to use a From line that makes sense. Looking through my Deleted Items as I write this post, I see dozens of non-descript From lines like “M L”, “Info,” “EXED” and “hub1″—abbreviations which are completely meaningless to me. At a minimum, using something like your company name in the From line will spare you from having to use it in the Subject Line, saving dozens of characters that can be allocated to an actual marketing message.

Rule #4: Scale Back Your Message Frequency

The act of someone joining your marketing list does NOT give you permission to pound their email boxes into submission. With Direct Email there is a ‘noise threshold’ you MUST obey to prevent opt-outs—one email per three weeks for B2B, and one email per week for B2C. When it comes to message frequency, less is definitely more. Unfortunately, many of the people I follow on Twitter have a difficult time grasping this concept as well. In the past week I have stopped following over 300 companies, because they believe posting four Tweets at a time—at a rate of six times per day—is an intelligent way to drive traffic back to their websites. Here’s a tip: if you send me 24 messages per day, I won’t read any of them. Then I’ll block you.

Rule #5: Segment Your List

If all goes well, soon you will be in possession of a 20,000 piece, opt-in email list of people who actually WANT to hear from your company on a regular basis. But when you are, the next challenge—demographic segmentation—will be even more difficult than actually building the list. In a perfect world, every person on your list will have the same needs and interests. But most of us aren’t this lucky. When your list becomes larger in size, start the segmentation process by sending subscribers a quick survey about the types of information they are interested in, giving them a small list of options to choose from. When it is time to get even more sophisticated, dig deeper into your followers’ backgrounds. The key to good demographics is to customize them based on your business model and what you are trying to accomplish—not to use the same job function, title, age, and gender classifications every other company in the world uses.

Comments? Questions? Please feel free to post a comment—and don’t forget to include a link back to your website (backlinks are SEO gold, people).

Otherwise a Retweet (using the button at the beginning of the article), Stumble or Digg (below) would be very much appreciated!

Pay-per-Click (PPC) for Small Companies: Still a Bad Idea

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:45:36 +0000

Back in early November I wrote a short post titled When Pay-per-Click (PPC) is a Bad Idea. As of this morning, about five months later, this article is still the most popular page on my site. One of two things is likely the cause: 1) many small companies are considering investing in Pay-per-Click and having doubts, or 2) many small companies are already investing in PPC, and second-guessing their decisions. This followup post will hopefully address both situations. Just so you know, the small company I currently work for falls into category #2. Here is why.

This past week I sat down with three members of the marketing team to review our Pay-per-Click stats. Our PPC approach has always been pretty straightforward—for the past few years we have been running eight different PPC ad sets per month, for eight different products. The budget for each ad set is $500 per month, for a total monthly Pay-per-Click spend of $4,000 (8 PPC ad sets x $500 per month = $4,000). Although we have always been able to monitor both Clicks and Spend, at the beginning of 2009 we added the ability to track actual purchases (Revenue) made from PPC ads. This was our first meeting since revenue tracking was made available, and prior to the meeting we had no reason to believe our Pay-per-Click ads weren’t working. Following is a summary of our findings for Q1:

One ad set was running at break even ($1,400 in revenue from $1,500 spent); and
Combined revenue for the other seven ad sets was approximately $400 TOTAL.

To put it another way, as a company in Q1 we wasted just over $10,000 on Pay-per-Click ads that weren’t resulting in sales. At this point, the decision was simple: we left the one PPC ad in place (the one that was breaking even) and redirected the remaining $3,500 per month into other marketing efforts.

After months of analyzing and researching this issue—along with the painful and expensive lesson outlined above—I am more confident than ever that Pay-per-Click advertising is simply not a good idea for small companies. Not only is it mandatory to have the technology and the know-how to measure each dollar of revenue generated (not an easy task for a small company), but as I mentioned in my November post, Pay-per-Click is not a good value. The fact is, the entire pricing model is based on competitive bidding, which means PPC is the one marketing method where companies can be absolutely guaranteed to pay market value for each and every click. And once you factor in competitors, tire kickers, college kids working on research papers and people who click on things because they have nothing else to do, companies actually pay slightly LESS than market value for PPC traffic. Small companies need to spend their time looking for opportunities to generate the most traffic at the LEAST cost, not market rates.

And finally, if the information above doesn’t convince you that Pay-per-Click dollars are wasted dollars, check this out: it’s a Heatmap of the Google Home Page from EyeTools.net. Note the “F-shaped” hot zone at the top left-hand corner. Unless you’re willing to pay a premium to have your PPC ads show up above the first search listing (the hottest zone on the Google Home Page) there is a good chance most people aren’t actually seeing them. Which means any ‘branding’ benefit you might be getting from having Pay-per-Click ads displayed in the sidebar are probably fictional as well.

Like this article? Social bookmarks are blogger currency, so please Retweet, Digg or Stumble (handy buttons provided). Otherwise, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you!

Tips for a Tough Economy: Marketing on a Small(er) Budget

Eric_Rudolf — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:06:36 +0000

As the economy continues to worsen and the term “401″ more accurately describes my account balance than the retirement vehicle itself, marketing services firms across the nation are trying to get their finger on the “our method is most cost-effective” scale. If you read their self-promoting white papers and newsletters, you will find that nearly every sector of the marketing services world is claiming their method is tailor-made for tough economies. But which marketing methods REALLY give you the most return for your marketing investment? Pay-per-Click? Direct email? Web ads? Database marketing? Webinars? Direct mail? The answer is, IT DOESN’T MATTER. Because as long as you keep making these five marketing mistakes, you’re going to lose money no matter what you do.

Marketing Mistake #1: Using Shotgun-Style Approaches. If your company spends $10,000 to get its new print advertisement in front of 1 million readers of a magazine (only a penny per thousand people) is it a good investment? Not if only 2,000 readers are in your target market. If you don’t know how many legitimate potential customers are in a group you’re marketing to, you have no business booking the campaign—especially in this economy. Do your homework in advance of booking your campaigns, and calculate the REAL cost of reaching your target audience.

Mistake #2: Spending Money on Marketing Campaigns You Can’t Measure. Once you make a conscious decision to weed out shotgun-style marketing approaches, the next step is to eliminate any campaigns that don’t have measurable performance metrics. How much money is your company making from its trade shows, print ads and pay-per-click placements? If your marketing department doesn’t have a way to answer the question, don’t write the check.

Mistake #3: Not Moving Your Money Around. Marketing is different than the 401(k) I mentioned in my intro. Since I didn’t get my money out of the stock market in time, I’m pretty much stuck re-buying the same stocks, in hopes that someday they all rebound and the principle of Dollar Cost Averaging finally works in my favor. But small companies are not under the same obligation. Don’t make the mistake of continually re-investing in certain campaigns because of some unwarranted need for marketing ‘variety.’ If certain campaign types work better than others, increase your focus in those areas.

Mistake #4: Not Negotiating with Vendors. When the economy is slow, your marketing budget will shrink . . . but so will the list of people wanting to advertise in the same places you do. Here’s a tip: if your 2009 marketing budget is smaller than last year, tell your vendors. Less than three weeks ago I explained to an ad rep I had been working with for four years that my marketing budget shrunk by 20%. Within a half-hour she rewrote my quarterly Insertion Order and sent it back to me–with a 20% discount reflected. Available advertising inventory ( both print and web) has grown SIGNIFICANTLY over the last three months. There is no reason you can’t take advantage.

Mistake #5: Not Marketing. If you really sat down and gave it some thought, you’d probably realize you’ve completely lost track of a few competitors recently. In an effort to hang on for dear life, these companies have more than likely stopped spending money on marketing. But unless your company sells luxury boats in Detroit, there are still customers out there! By cutting off your marketing efforts completely, you are assuming the risk that your business can live off of its existing customers indefinitely. Are you willing to take this chance?

Also, social bookmarks are blogger currency, so please Retweet, Digg or Stumble (handy buttons provided) if you liked this story. Otherwise, a quick visit to one of our Google ad sponsors would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you!

THEsmallCOMPANYBLOG » Marketing and IM

9 Ways to Increase Your Small Company Website Traffic

Traffic Tip #1: Write Your Pages with Web Searchers in Mind

Traffic Tip #2: Form a Purpose-Driven Social Networking Group

Traffic Tip #3: Provide and Market Educational Content

Traffic Tip #4: Start a Blog, Because It’s Not Too Late (Really)

Traffic Tip #5: Find Sites that Will Link Back to You

Traffic Tip #6: Become a Regular Contributor to the Industry Rags

Traffic Tip #7: Ask People for Their Input

Traffic Tip #8: Use Social Bookmarks on Your Most Valuable Website Content

Traffic Tip #9: Encourage People to Tell Others About Your Company

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Twitter Tool #5: The Time-Waster, Spammer and Bot Finder (by TwitCleaner)

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Myth #1: You Have to Spend a Ton of Money.

Myth #2: You Need an Entire ‘Team’ of People.

Myth #3: You Need to Sell Something During Your Webinar.

Myth #4: A Webinar is Considered a Failure if a Large Number of People Don’t Show Up.

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