WorkSmart eMarketing

Make your eMarketing Strategy WorkSmart in 2008

For 2008, focusing resources toward your internet presence is going to be a must. As the internet grows and the amount of people interacting daily increases; making sure you are there for people to find and communicate with has dramatically become more important. By no means is this something to lose sleep over … The coolest thing about eMarketing would be the advantages it provides to individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses, organizations and college students, just to name a few.  These eMarketing advantages include, but are not limited to:

1) cost-efficient

2.) time-effective

3.) ease of use

4) ease of turning visitors into customers

5) and a HIGH Return on Investment.

eMarketing is simply Working Smart – to market your business, your idea, yourself, and/or your cause.

eMarketing campaigns should be focused on one thing – your website. This may be a corporate or business website, a personal free website or even a blog that facilitates your web presence. Hence, much of your focus should be on your website . Be sure to create a solid foundation when developing your website to include;  content, navigation scheme, overall layout, flow of traffic and keyword phrases.  These decisions should be based around the goals of your campaign. A few examples: If you want to increase traffic from search engines, build your plan with a focus on Search Engine Marketing. If your goal is to attract customers and improve retention; create a strategy around email campaigns, blogging and begin getting connected to social networks.

Regardless of your goal, there are a few VERY important items to always be conscious of:

1.    Persistence: Before any real eMarketing push, you must be ready to execute, follow through and be persistent about your investment. In many campaigns, it takes time before the real Return on Investmen (ROI) is recognized (“cashed in”). Sticking to your blog schedule, your newsletters, updating social media websites, new content on your website and so forth, are all reflective on how successful your campaign will be. Many small businesses find this difficult and begin to no longer hold themselves accountable for keeping up to date due to the multiple roles one must play. Find an accountibilibuddy to stay on top. This is critical to your short and long term success.
2.    Ask for/Accept and Search out Assistance: the internet has available, and the Web 2.0 push has provided for, tremendous amounts of resources, learning materials and communities to chat about helping you get started on your campaign. Technorati.com is a search engine for blogs. Read a few and comment on some in your niche to get a better feel of how to write for your blog. Slideshare.net has a variety of slide show presentations, many of which are educational – search for your topic of interest. Sit back, click and learn. Most importantly, many people utilizing eMarketing consider themselves to be entrepreneurs; which is fine, but that does not mean we entrepreneurs must know “everything”.  Seek and accept advice.
3.    Education: Every week brings new techniques, theories and case studies that show the best practices of professionals in different areas. Many of these people have blogs or lists of websites to help educate individuals on specific campaigns (social media, podcasting, video, SEM, etc…) Every day I allocate 1.5-2 hours on reading and researching new articles or tools on the internet. Build it into YOUR calendar and stick by it! Educating yourself is critical to your short and long term success.
4.    Center of traffic: All campaigns are typically built around one center. In most cases, this would be your website. For those working on a tight budget,  set up a blog, use your linkedin.com profile (professional networking site) or set up a free website through Microsoft.com until you get the appropriate funds for a more customized presence. The great thing about eMarketing is its ease of use to measure results. So making sure you have a website or place on the internet to track your results for your campaigns is important. Make sure that you are leveraging the first 5 seconds of someone’s visit to the best of your ability in line with your goals of the campaign. Tracking, understanding and being willing to make necessary changes to your website, blog, profile, etc., in order to get the desired results; will encourage the growth of both you and your business.
5.    Keyword Phrases: These are the phrases that people on google, yahoo, etc… are searching. For example if I want to find a golf course in Oxford, Ohio; I would go to google.com and type in “Oxford, Ohio golf courses” this is the keyword phrases and the basis to many Search Engine Optimization campaigns. However, picking out two phrases that you think people are going to search for (typically 3 words or more) helps focus your content, improve your rankings, and keep all your material connected with the same tags. This allows you to be “found” even in situations where people didn’t realize they were looking for YOU!

Follow these guidelines and be on your way to Working Smart with your eMarketing campaign in 2008!

Don’t work hard, WorkSmart!

Tags: Best Pratices, eMarketing, eMarketing campaign, eMarketing strategy, successful eMarketing, WorkSmart, WorkSmart eMarketing