I sort of disappeared in 2011. It was a challenging year for me personally and professionally. While trying to center myself and my business for the New Year, I did a lot of research, attended quite a few webinars and teleconferences and visited a lot of other blogs. My objective was to get a better sense of where things are headed.

• What will our customers expect from us?
• What are their needs?
• Are there gaps in the information and services available that are not being met?

These are the types of questions you might consider when working on a business plan. My objective was to gain a big-picture, longer-range view given the economy, staggering competition and my own need for greater clarity. The results were interesting.

Mobility is only going to increase

Its not news that the use of smart phones, iPads and tablets like the Kindle Fire will continue to grow. The untold story is that these new portable devices will demand more and provide even greater challenges for anyone creating content for the web.

SEO Expert Sean Mitchell says that having a mobile optimized website is a new factor in the search engine rankings. Google considers mobile so important that it has added a mobile robot to scour the results users see when they access the web from a smart phone or iPad.

If viewers have to do a lot of scrolling around or zooming in to read your content, expect to take a hit in search rankings, Mitchell warns.

This means you will need a second website for mobile users – one that is optimized for smaller screens – that serves up just the right information for the person on the go. Contact information, maps, coupons or menus will play a leading role.  Your mobile optimized website will probably include fewer, fast loading images because mobile surfers will be less likely to wait for slow pages to load.

Some mobile platforms use software to detect the surfer’s browser. If the software detects a safari or android browser, it automatically re-directs the surfer to the mobile site.

Content developers now need to consider:

• What goes on the main site vs. the mobile optimized website and what linking will occur between them?
• What marketing strategies will you use to drive prospects to your mobile site?
• What will happen to your main site as more people reach your web real estate from mobile devices?
• How will this affect your marketing budget and your tracking systems?

This is going to be fun!

Social media will continue to play a major role in lead generation

Traffic generation strategies will grow even more complex with the need to incorporate dozens of social media sites into your marketing plan. Smaller businesses are overtaxed now. But increasingly, you’ll need well planned Facebook fan pages, as well as an effective strategy for LinkedIn and Twitter. And almost everyday, I hear about a new social media site that you can no longer ignore.

Multimedia will play a bigger role in internet content

To engage site visitors and compete with larger companies, you’ll have to create videos, slide shows, info graphics, webinars, podcasts and who knows what else? This will put a lot of pressure on one or two-person businesses. You’ll either need deeper pockets to outsource some of these projects or joint venture partners to pick up the slack.

So what will all of these new content demands mean for small businesses, home businesses and solopreneurs? It’s going to get harder and harder to compete.

In such an environment, it may be critical to have a recognizable brand that is easily distinguished from your competition. Or you may need to specialize in a very narrow niche.

I don’t have a handle on all the resources that will help you succeed in this environment yet. But  join our email list so you won’t miss future blog posts on this topic.

Marcia Ming

P.S. If you’re looking for a complete software package to create mobile optimized websites, take a look at Jason Fladlien’s WP Mobile Pro. It meets all of the criteria I mentioned earlier and is optimized for most smart phone browsers.

I’m familiar with Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula. I know a lot of these big internet marketers brag about their server crashes and how much money they made in a few days. But I question whether a big product launch is always the best idea, given the huge strain  put on staff, servers and infrastructure to pull these big launches off and the potential for disaster.

Done wrong, a big product launch could actually damage one’s reputation. Here’s Why.

I recently bought a product that I was totally excited about. It is a scorching HOT product in a niche that promises to dominate the future. I absolutely loved the sales page, the graphics and the videos used to sell the product. And I was equally ecstatic about the training videos – all 50 of them and many other resources. There was no question that these people had over delivered. I thought it was one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Second Thoughts

And then a tiny mix-up involving a second product that was part of an upsell led me to ask big questions about whether I should pursue what looked like a terrific business. Without totally revealing the product, I’ll tell you that part of it involved using the vendor’s software to deliver a service to customers.

More than a week after my purchase I’m still trying to gain access to this second part of the offer. So I put in a ticket with their customer support and apparently with Clickbank. The problem came when Clickbank responded. The message included a note with a number to call which ironically happened to be in my own zip code.

I dialed the number only to learn that the person on the other end was another person who had purchased the product, never received it and had complained to Clickbank. I still don’t know how this mix-up occurred. But now, I had big questions about the services of this company.

Could I count on them to deliver? Would my customers face serious snags in their services? Could my business receive a black eye if I promoted these services?

The people who created these wonderful products are very young. What they put together was extremely ambitious. I am sure they are on their way to earning millions of dollars. But at that moment I started to see this as a risky venture for me because I could not control their services, and yet my business would depend on their delivery.

I share this story to demonstrate how important a customer’s experience can be to your small business. You always have to keep in mind how your customer will be affected by the actions you take.

It might have been better for this company to roll out the business in stages. By all accounts they sold several thousand copies of this package. That was a lot to manage with a big product launch involving a number of super affiliates.

It’s the ancillary pieces – the related software – not the training itself, that gave me pause. If the software works as promised, it should be awesome. But as I started to realize how many people would rely on the services of this young company, I wondered if they would be up to the challenge, given the mix-up I experienced.

The message I would share is to anticipate the things that are likely to go wrong. Plan your product launch to ensure you can deal with the inevitable snags. This product was so good that I bet these guys will overcome these challenges.

Still, I wouldn’t want my customers wondering if I can really deliver everything I promised, because of customer service snags. Remember this story as you plan a new product launch for your business. And let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Super Affiliate Lynn Terry recently asked her Facebook followers to share their top affiliate marketing problems. The 10 listed here were among 20 major issues people mentionned.

Here’s Lynn’s list of the top 10 Problems With Affiliate Marketing:

1. Choosing a Profitable Niche
2. Working with Affiliate Links and HTML Code
3. Getting Traffic
4. Making Sales
5. Writing Content
6. Writing Sales Copy
7. Motivation & Time Management
8. Working with Affiliate Program Managers/Merchants
9. Link Building
10. Building a Responsive Mailing List

If like me, your online business involves promoting other people’s products as an affiliate marketer, you’ve surely struggled with most of the problem’s on Lynn’s list.

What is really cool about Lynn’s post is that she not only identifies the problems affiliate marketers face, but she also links to previous blog posts she has written that provide solutions to these problems.

With the post and the links, you’re getting a terrific education from a very successful affiliate marketer. So I strongly recommend that you visit her site to read Top 10 Problems With Affiliate Marketing. You don’t want to miss this.

 2011 should be a year of great opportunity as well as many challenges. Many of you are trying to keep your small businesses alive or starting new ones to replace lost incomes.

The good news is that you have never had such a positive array of marketing vehicles to help you succeed. Here are 10 savvy marketing ideas to help you promote your small business this year.

1. Exploit social media by developing a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and other sites, focusing on the sites most appropriate for your business. Facebook is on fire this year so most businesses should have a presence there — either a fan page or group. We’ll talk more about this in future blog posts. The social media sites you select should mirror your marketing concentration.
2. Define and expand your small business brand. If you don’t have a brand, develop one. In case you’re wondering, we specialize in savvy marketing for tiny businesses — the one you’re running from your kitchen table at home, a small shop or office, or the back of your van or truck.  To develop your brand, decide what you do best and what you want to be known for. Work your brand into everything you do and all of your marketing. Use your branding to set your business apart from your competition.
3. Use video marketing as effectively as possible. There are a variety of ways to use video in your marketing. This topic is complicated so we will do a post on video marketing very soon. Stay tuned.
4. If yours is a local business think mobile. How will customers find you from their cell phones? How will your site appear on those tiny screens? Will they find what they need — your location and possible phone number quickly without a lot of scrolling?
5. Create a blog and post regularly — at least once a week — on topics of interest to your target market. Your blog can be written, audio, video, or hopefully a mixture of these content forms. You can include photos, other graphics and even photo slide shows as some of the big sites are doing.
6. Provide great content – content marketing is hotter than ever! Keep an eye out for content in various formats that will appeal, educate and entertain your target market. We’ve carried several posts about content recently, but look out for much more as the year develops.
7. Do keyword research to find the issues and products your target customers care about. This is one of my least favorite activities but I am conceding that you can’t succeed without doing keyword research to discover what your market wants.
8. Concentrate on buyer keywords. Using the right keyword phrases, you’ll be able to connect with your audience just when they are ready to buy. I am working on a special feature on keyword research, so join our list or register for our RSS feed.
9. Focus – don’t use a shotgun approach in your market. Develop a plan and stick to it. That doesn’t mean you can not be flexible when challenges arise. But you should avoid jumping on every band wagon that comes along, or listening to whomever shouts the loudest.
10. Use the talent within your organization to exploit the areas where you are strongest. If your people are better at talking than writing, concentrate on audio media — such as blog talk radio or Ustream. If your team includes writing talent, concentrate your marketing efforts on article marketing, blog and forum posting, and press releases. If you have people who know what to do with a video camera, than concentrate your efforts on video. You need a little bit of everything, so focus on your strengths in house, but be prepared to outsource the things your staff can’t do well.

That list of savvy marketing ideas should keep you busy. Whatever you do,  keep learning. As I told you last time we are in the middle of a media revolution. Things are in a state of flux and if you snooze in this environment you will definitely lose. We promise to help you stay on top of all the changes, so visit often.

We’d love to get your thoughts on our 10 Savvy Marketing Ideas. So leave a comment. Tell us what you are doing in your business. Tell us what has worked, or not worked for you.

We’re in the midst of a social media revolution that threatens to reshape the Middle East. The impact of this revolution appears to be transforming media, marketing and advertising in ways that are not yet fully understood.

In the past the advertiser ruled. Now the consumer has the upper hand and a two-way conversation has replaced yesterday’s pitch fest.

I learned a little about what to expect in a revolution as a history major in college. After reading leading works about the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution and other revolutions involving third world nations, I came away with one key lesson:  the only constant in a revolution is change.

Already the current media revolution has wreaked havoc on traditional media – newspapers, television, radio and advertising. In recent years, Google and other search engines led the way. But now with the emergence of giant social media networks, all the rules have changed.

Now real people can publish their own messages, pages, pictures and videos and they no longer tolerate one-way conversations.

These dramatic changes have left whole industries in disarray. For example, I belong to a group of published authors on LinkedIn where the big question is will the printed book survive? With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad, these writers are rightfully asking  how these changes and the growing acceptance of eBooks will affect their livelihood. 

Staying on top of all of this change is a daunting task for any business. I can write something only to find that some new wrinkle has altered the landscape entirely.

Several recent studies suggest that we are closer to the beginning of this revolution than the end. I suspect that if we could travel 50 years into the future we might not recognize the media and marketing vehicles.

As a student of history, I would never have imagined that a revolution that began in 1917 with the deposing of the Russian Czar would ultimately culminate in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  As a kid, I used one of those black typewriters with round keys and no power source. No way could I have imagined reading a book on a wireless device that could pull new content out of thin air?

My point in all of this is that you should expect change. In business school, they teach you to not only plan for opportunity, but for the worst case scenario as well. This is not an environment where you can grow complacent.

To get a better idea of what I mean,  you should read two recent posts on ClickZ.com, a site I monitor to stay up on changes in the Internet Marketing space.

Learned Helplessness in Marketing

Facebook Ads Get Half the Clicks of Network Banners

Just when the experts think they have it all figured out, some new innovation changes everything.

While you don’t want to respond to every new twist or turn, you do need to adapt to the sweeping changes with strong headwinds. And I suspect that social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube will point the way to the future.

To learn more about the trends taking shape in Facebook marketing, grab a copy of Facebook Marketing Secrets by joining our list.

High-traffic content website

If you’re still up in the air about what type of website is best for your small business, or you’re toying with including a blog, here are a few facts that may help you decide.  

Despite all the hype, a blog is really nothing more than a website. Essentially a blog is a website with an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order.  

Blogs or “weblogs” as they were originally called, trace their roots to online journaling and community building efforts. However, used as a business tool, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money. Here’s why.  

The structure of blogs is perfect for revenue producing efforts.  

1. Blog sites tend to be heavy on content and their ease of use makes it easy to add updates.
2. Regardless of which blogging platform you use, you’ll be able to produce a content-based site with a series of well-targeted pages.

Why does this matter? It’s critical because search engines love content. Textual content keeps search engine spiders well fed and persuades them to visit again and again. Google, Yahoo and MSN reward information-packed sites with better positioning in search results and index these sites quickly.  

Blogs have an advantage when it comes to traffic.  

Effective blog use produces high search engine rankings and, thus, great traffic levels. Traffic is a key to profitability. Your site won’t make you money if no one sees it. The traffic advantage blogs enjoy with search engines is one of the main reasons to consider choosing a blog for your website or adding one to your existing static site.  

You’re probably thinking you can just add a lot of content to your static site and accomplish the same objective. But you should know that adding fresh content to a static site could be more of a hassle, depending on your setup.  

Ease of Use Makes Blogs Easier to Update.  

Unless you manage your own site, adding fresh content might mean writing the content (or paying to have it written), converting it to HTML, inserting the content into the static page and then uploading the page to the server again. Unless you are using a very easy site manager, it’s probably going to take less effort to add new content to a blog.  

If it’s complicated to add fresh content, you’re less likely to add updates as often as you should. Blogging solves this problem. All major blog platforms allow users to create new “posts” and to add them to the blog with a few simple mouse clicks.

There are two other benefits of the blog platform: 

1. The comment feature makes it easy for site visitors to providefeedback.
   

   RSS symbol

2. The RSS “real simple syndication” feature lets visitors sign up to get your feed when your site is updated.

This combination can make your blog sticky, making return visitors far more likely. That traffic, when coupled with the right moneymaking strategy can produce great results.  

If your business website is strictly static, you should consider adding a blog. With a blog’s proven traffic-generating advantages, you may be able to create a profitable, high-traffic site that requires minimal effort.  

In upcoming posts, we’ll talk about ways to outsource the content creation for your “hungry” blog. So join our list or sign up for our RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss anything. And leave a comment below to let us know if you found this post helpful.

If you’re reading this blog post you’re probably knee deep in planning for a new website for your small business. You’ve heard that “content is king” on the Internet. And you may be wondering – What content? Where do I get it? What will help my business?

Your Website Content Needs to Help Your Customer

Keep your customer or site visitor in mind when you plan your content.  Whether your site visitors are looking for the solution to a problem, or just surfing for information, your site needs to be all about them. With the exception of the About page, you should not focus on you or your company.

To focus on your site visitors, you need to know what they want. So how do you find out?

1. Visit forums and social media sites where your target customers hang out.
2. Ask them – Use a survey to determine their interests or ask them to suggest topics they would like to know more about.
3. Visit the sites of competitors.
4. Track your links in emails and or website, to see what content gets clicked.
5. Don’t just track what people buy. If you have articles and other content on your site, pay attention to what articles they read and the videos watched to get a sense of interests outside your present offerings.
6.  Of course, you want to give them a taste of your product or service, but whatever you share should be what they NEED or WANT. That’s why a lot of people place articles, videos and other content on their websites.

The type of content you include will depend on your business:

If you are a coach, trainer or consultant, you want them to experience your style and what it would be like to work with you. But you need to do that carefully by sharing a sample of what you would provide them as clients. You want them to get a sense of the value you would bring to their business or their life if your customer is a consumer. You can do that with your website’s content or the freebie you give away to encourage them to join your list.

Writers, photographers and graphic designers typically showcase their work, to let the prospect determine if their work is a good fit.

If you plan to develop an ecommerce site, you’re going to want ad copy that will sell your product or service. You’ll also want the prospect to see, hear and experience your product with a photo or video and maybe even a demo.  You’ll want them to hear a sample of your talks or speeches if you are a speaker.

Whatever you do, don’t talk about your company.

This sampling of what you have to offer and how it will benefit the buyer is much more important than all the details about your company. You do want to establish a relationship with your site visitor by giving them a sense of your company’s personality – but trust me, they won’t care until they have decided that they’re interested in what you’re selling.

Website content can take many forms.

 Be creative. You should offer a variety of formats to suit different learning styles and preferences. Some people prefer to read information while others are more visual. Some people need to hear your material or touch it before they can really make a decision. The more varied your website content, the better.

Let your imagination go. Consider anything that enhances the quality of your prospect’s site visit. In our next post, we’ll talk about how to create great content and where to look for ideas.

Small business owners who worry more about how their website looks than what it says are making a critical error. That’s because site visitors and search engines pay more attention to a website’s content than they do looks.

In fact some elements often found on small business sites such as flash doorways are more likely to prevent a site from being found by humans and search engine robots.

So why is the content of a small business website so important?

One reason is that consumers don’t venture onto the web looking for information about your business. They often aren’t looking to buy something. They want information to solve a problem. Even when they are searching for information about a product or service, they are trying to get the facts that will help them make the best possible choice.

So if you’re creating a website as part of your marketing arsenal, the site needs to work for consumers. It needs to provide the information they are looking for before you can begin to prove that you’re the best company to do business with.

Small Business Websites Need to Speak the Consumer’s Language – Meaning they need to use the keyword phrases consumers are searching for.

Most consumers begin their web exploration by putting keywords and keyword phrases, also known as tags into search boxes – probably on Google.com, although other search engines get a fair amount of searches too.

All of those search engines uses robots to crawl millions of sites using complicated algorithms designed to return the best possible results. If the robots see that the individual is using a computer in Kentucky, based on the IP address from which they are accessing the internet, they are likely to serve up any available local resources when you are looking for a dentist or chiropractor.

On the other hand if geography is not a factor, the search engine robots will look for the most reputable sites with lots of smaller sites linking to them. It’s a good bet that there are a great number of websites all vying for the same keyword phrases. So your first challenge is to identify keyword phrases or tags that give your business a chance to get on the first page of the search results.

That’s not going to be easy unless you have an older domain and lots of sites linking in but that’s a different lesson. It’s important for you to understand the challenge.

Now let’s talk about content.

Search engines robots can’t see your pictures or your site’s design. They prefer sites with lots of relevant content. The site visitor also will respond well to strong content that relates well to their search. You know yourself, that when you perform a search, you will move past entries that don’t appear to offer the information you are looking for.

It’s only after the searcher has determined that you have the right information that they are likely to pay attention to the site’s aesthetics. So you do care about how the site looks but that is only a small part of your strategy in building a website to market your business.

In tomorrow’s post, we’ll talk more about what content really is. A lot of things you may not see as content could be just what your visitors are looking for.

Goal setting graphic with person reaching for a star

It’s that time again. Time to evaluate what worked well or failed with your marketing activities in 2010. It’s also time to look at today’s marketing trends to decide which activities you plan to pursue in 2011.

After examining my own business activities, my list includes:

1. Focusing on building my lists
2. Nurturing my lists
3. Using video marketing
4. Developing more content using varied media
5. Expanding my use of social media and social marketing
6. Consistently providing quality content on my blog
7. Using article marketing correctly and writing many more articles.
8. Posting on forums regularly in my niche
9. Continuing to learn to be a better internet marketer by reading leading blogs in my niche, books, and attending webinars and live events when possible.
10. Teaching what I learn.

That’s a pretty tall order, but if I succeed in doing even half of what I am planning, I will consider 2011 a success.

It’s important to stop long enough to plan. Sometimes taking a hard look at your business is painful. But there are important lessons to learn from the process.

How do you do this?

• Take a hard look at your stats using such tools as Google Analytics and Awstats (the stats available from your web host.
• Determine who your visitors are (their demographics) , where they are coming from (referring sites) and what pages they are visiting on your site?
• What keyword phrases or tags are they using to find your site? What opportunities are you missing — by that; I mean related keywords you could use to develop additional content?
• Determine what your bounce rate is and where your most avid visitors are coming from. For example, I didn’t distribute many articles last year to article directories, but one of the things I learned was that site visitors who come from Ezine Articles are more likely to visit several pages and spend more time on my site. At the same time, I discovered that people referred by search engines like Google often bounced right out after only a few seconds. That suggests that I need to pay more attention to my keyword research, and that I should write more articles.
• Spend time on Google’s Webmaster tools to determine who is linking to my site and try to develop ways to get more links from high ranking sites in my niche.
• Focus on projects until they are completed – I have a fair number of projects in the works that I need to wrap up before starting new ones.
• Determine how well your site is converting visitors to subscribers and customers.

This is my list. Yours may be different depending on which business model you are pursuing and the niche and the type of content your site has.

Why discuss my evaluation process?

One reason is to let you know that it takes serious effort to succeed online regardless of what some marketers suggest. Often you don’t know what you’re doing badly until you do it and examine the results.

Some marketers test everything they do – every headline, every email marketing campaign, every call to action and every landing page. Those who take the time and effort to subject their efforts to such scrutiny often experience greater success in terms of subscribers or leads, sales and conversions.

So I suggest, you take a couple of afternoons and dig deeply into your site’s stats. Look at everything closely – to learn whatever you can because that examination will show you what and where you need to improve.

To learn more, join the list for this blog. List members will get special reports on some of the topics mentioned in this post.

Franchon Beeks

 Like millions of Americans, Franchon Beeks has a day job. But unlike most of us, she gets to indulge her creative side once a month by producing and performing in her own artistic expression shows alongside some of her favorite local musicians. 

Franchon, A.K.A. SuiteFranchon, is a poet performer, author, live performance producer and community advocate. Usually she performs to packed audiences, which she attracts using two popular marketing vehicles – mobile marketing and Facebook. 

Franchon is not alone in discovering the power of mobile marketing and Facebook as promotional tools. These high-tech tools seem to work so well because word of mouth still reigns in the Web 2.0 era. As major corporations and marketers everywhere are learning all over again, people are much more likely to be influenced by their friends and family. 

“As an entertainer, FB (Facebook) is the best,” Franchon says. “I have been able to expand my fan base and create a network of people who love and appreciate live artistic expression.  I recently set up group & fan pages to promote my last event.” 

How Franchon Uses Facebook and Mobile 

When the details of her next production are set, Franchon updates her Facebook page or group – Suite Franchon. Then she gets on the horn – via her cell phone – to everyone on her mobile list to spread the word. 

Her loyal audience knows they won’t miss a show if they are following her on Facebook, or part of her mobile list. And as word spreads of Franchon’s colorful performances, her lists grow. 

Franchon said she avoids Facebook Invites because everyone’s email is clogged with them and often people don’t look at them and respond any more.  “So, the group page allows me to target those who show a genuine liking to what I do.” 

If you are not on Facebook or using mobile to promote your local business, you should definitely give it a try. Be sure to visit Suite Franchon on Facebook to sample one of her performances, and if you happen to be anywhere near Wilmington, Delaware on the last Friday of the month, you should try to catch Franchon live. 

As you may know, Facebook surpassed mighty Google in 2010, with the largest audience online at any one time — more than 500 million visitors in a single day. And as consumers spend more time on Facebook than they do anywhere else, the site is beefing up its search tools and advertising vehicles. 

But don’t think you can spam your way onto the site that focuses on social interactions. There is a right way and a wrong way to engage people on Facebook. Get it wrong and you could get banned forever. To learn more about how to turn Facebook into a powerful marketing vehicle for your business, grab your free copy of Facebook Marketing Secrets by joining our list. 

We’ll provide list members with lots of great extras about Facebook marketing, mobile marketing and internet marketing in general, so you don’t want to wait. Join now! 

Just in:  

SuiteFranchon Presents is working on a tour for 2011. For a publicity package or to schedule an event in your area, contact her at suitefranchon@yahoo.com or (302) 442-1223.