Genius...Using the Web To Grow

An outstanding article from the WSJ...

How to Get Attention In a New-Media World

The rules of the publicity game are changing. Here are ways to claim the spotlight for your business.

By GWENDOLYN BOUNDS
September 25, 2006; Page R1

Three years ago, fledgling New York shoe and dress designer Holly Dunlap hired a well-known public-relations firm to put her brand name -- Hollywould -- on the map. She paid roughly $6,500 a month as a retainer, small change in the PR world but a fortune for her small firm.

"For us, it was a lot to pay," the 34-year-old Ms. Dunlap says. "We didn't have a lot of patience for that amount of money. We needed to see results on a daily basis."

Ms. Dunlap, in fact, was seeing results -- just not so much from the PR firm. She had begun penning a diary on her Web site, www.ilovehollywould.com, chock-full of juicy details about her personal life, from late-night keg-party revelry in her downtown Manhattan boutique to boozy jet-setting jaunts through Europe. (A sample 2003 entry from London: "When your first words of the morning are 'Where am I and how did I get here?', you know it's been a long, long night.") The attractive, gregarious designer created an appetite for her entries by boldfacing names of acquaintances as well as those of famous faces she encountered. Soon people were checking to see if they'd made a mention, passing the links to friends around the country. As Web-site traffic grew, so too did sales.

To see the rest, check out the WSJ Online. This article alone is worth the subscription to WSJ Online.

The "Why Didn't I Think of Those" Keys to Internet Success - Part 1

Had the pleasure of eating breakfast with my friend Simon Clay-Michaels a while back. We were discussing his new project Isabont. It is a unique service that helps executives find new career opportunities by improving their resumes and helping them eliminate the mistakes most of us make when we're trying to get the gig...brilliant.

As we were talking about the challenge of driving traffic to his site, we discussed the keys to building a successful business online. We've been figuring out how to build his new business and how to monetize not only his customers, but also his general audience. Thought we'd share some of the ideas with you.

The “Why Didn't I Think of Those” Keys to Internet Success:

1. Traffic
2. Conversion
3. Dialogue
4. Earn Action
5. Drive Wallet Share

Simple enough, right?

Yeah...not so much. So let's think about these elements in real world terms.

In this article, we'll tackle Traffic.

Traffic - In the noisy Internet world, building web traffic is a challenge...to say the least. There are scores of SEO firms and gurus claiming to "guarantee" top 10 listings. Tragically, most of these folks simply cannot deliver. We know because we've tried many of them on our own internal projects.

Unfortunately, there's no silver bullet in SEO. The key to building traffic is the good old, tried and true blocking and tackling of SEO. Here are a few things that will help immediately:

1. Use keywords in your internal links. Make it easy for the search engines to understand what it is you do. For example, instead of www.khminternet.com/web.htm (which we use now), we'll be switching that page name to www.khminternet.com/website_development.htm. Slight variation, big results. It has worked for our clients and now we’re making this change on our own website in the coming weeks (cobbler’s child syndrome). We suggest you do the same.

2. Fix that title tag. Your title tag is the single most important element search engines use to rank your site. Be clear. Be concise. Be descriptive. Use your keywords, more than once if possible, but don't over do it. Spamming keywords is a no no.

3. Increase your keyword density. While there is no secret recipe for success, the more you can contextually work in your keywords the better. Also use bullets, headings (H), italics (I or EM) and boldface tags (STRONG or B)to point out to search engines that your keywords are important. We use Wordtracker and Google Trends to identify good keywords.

4. Get listed in each major search engines preferred directory. Huh? Aren't search engines directories? Well, sort of. Each search engine uses a directory to drive results. Get in the directory, get recognized quicker and more accurately and ultimately, get more visitors. Here are a few to get you started:

Google - DMOZ.org
Yahoo - Yahoo Directory
MSN - bCentral

5. Trade Links. A fast way to earn traffic is to trade links with high ranking web sites. It's easier said than done. You'll need to earn a page rank of 5 or better to make it happen effectively. So executing the first 4 strategies mentioned is probably the best place to begin.

Let us know how you make out.

Google Adwords Rock - New Demographics

We love Google...Adwords even more!

Google Adwords is an incredibly valuable marketeer's tool Where else can you have the opportunity to be viewed by more than 40% of the North America's search traffic?

Now, our friends at Google have made their powerful Adwords tool, even better. We thought when they added the ability to segment your ad impressions (displays of your AdWords ad) down to a particular geography was great. Now you can select up to three different demographic categories. Google will analyze your preferences and create a list of available Google sites that are popular with that particular audience.

Beauty.

If you make more than one selection, AdWords will identify web sites that match all of your demographic preferences.

For instance, you might ask the site tool to look for sites popular with female users between ages 30 and 45 with a certain income level. The site tool will then provide a list of sites whose constituents match those demographics.

The demographic data comes from comScore Media Metrix. Currently, they only profile US based visitors. More to follow as they increase coverage. We use this capability to develop local, well defined relationships using our
concentric circle marketing approach.

We love how Google makes our marketing life easier and how it releases our inner SEO geek.

Elephants vs. Ants

Ever heard this one?

It takes about as long to land a big customer as it does to win a small one.

So true...

Did you know that the majority of the Inc 500's fastest growing firms service large clients? It's a fact. One of the key benefits to working with big fish is they tend to emphasize quality over just the low bid. This provides you with pricing power because we all know your product or service rocks.

So as you approach your sales funnel, think about this...if you could land a small client in 4 weeks and a large one in 5 week, where should you spend your time?

Right. Elephants. Happy hunting.

Pick your spots

We know...you're good. The Michael Jordan of Marketing. The Babe Ruth of Sales.

But if you're selling to the wrong customers, you don't do as well as you could. They may be great customers for someone else, but maybe not for you.

GE has a hard and fast rule. It goes something like, "We will be #1 or #2 in a particular market or we will get out of it." That means GE, one of the world's most admired companies, takes a pragmatic look at each and every client they serve and market they occupy. The ones where they are most successful and deliver the most value, they focus, focus, focus. The businesses whose customers and/or market spaces present a daily "square peg in a round hole" fist fight, they dump.

Are there unprofitable customers or markets who are sucking up your resources, when you could be spending that time more profitably elsewhere?

Provocative Imagery Sends a Memorable Message

One of our associates brought in an ad they saw the other day from one of the nationally published business magazines. It was brilliant.

It showed a picure of a doctor using a tongue depressor and a doctor's light. She was peering into what looked like a hospital with it's "mouth" open. The caption read:

"When was the last time your hospital had a checkup?"

For this medical consultancy, the message hit the mark. Like we said...brilliant.

The Direct Mail Piggy Back

You'll love this one...

We just created and launched a direct mail program for a one of our clients. It used a "piggy-back" strategy. The first postcard...a beautiful 6x9 postcard that targeted runners...was sent to a list of approximately 1,000 road, track and cross-country runners in one state in the Northeast. Our client received a 1.1% response rate…about average. *YAWN*

Here's the cool part...We then sent the exact same postcard, crumpled up and flattened. We stuffed them in envelopes with a simple sticky note that said, "Please don't throw this out again. We're trying to save you up to 20% on your running shoes, apparel and accessories. Yours truly..."

Would you believe they got a 4.2% return! Well, they did. They also got a couple of customers who wondered how we knew that they'd thrown it out...no kidding.

Some people crack us up.