One thing that doesn’t change is that people love free stuff.

You probably have some sort of value-add for your customer…a white paper, a podcast, or even the simplest form – free shipping.

Giving them a reason to enter your site and a reason to keep coming back is always a great idea.  And free stuff is a great way to accomplish that.

When companies really started to marketing themselves online, the mindset was to “drive” traffic to their web sites.  Banner ads, keyword rankings, ad-words were some of the few means to promote a  site.  But the climate has shifted.  Now the most effective way to get your site noticed is to “drive your content” to the visitor.  There are now sooo many nesting sites like YouTube, About.com, Flickr, etc that consumers are more likely to browse THOSE sites for the content/info they are interested in.  These sites have everything in one place so the viewer doesn’t have to click around the world-wide-web…they can have immediate gratification.  The viewer is in control.

So if your competition is easily accessible on one of these “nesting” sites and conversely they need to click around to find you…they’ll choose the easy road.

Just don’t go crazy with it, again try to make it as relevant as possible for your customer.  All this social networking can work for you or against you, depending on how you use it.  It gives you more ways to communicate with your customers in a medium where they opt-in to receive your feeds.  Or in the case of YouTube, on a site that feeds your content to them.  But if the content is not useful for your customer, they’ll get turned off really fast.

When used strategically, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, facebooks can strengthen your relationship with the customer and make them feel part of your brand.

I know many are still leery of this form of advertising, but just so you know what’s going on “out there”…

Companies saying that they will significantly increase their spend in:
•    Social Media with an indicated 25%
•    Online advertising with 17%
•    Search Engine Advertising at 20%
Compare this to companies saying they would significantly increase spending in traditional media:
•    TV at 3%
•    Print Advertising at 1%

So you really should consider entering this arena – not only to remain competitive, but to progress your business as well.

Start a blog.  But if you’re reading this – you probably already have one.

This may change by next year, but for now a blog site is a fabulous way to interact with our customer.  It allows your company’s personality to come through.  It allows for customer’s to comment on your thoughts which makes them feel part of your company in a way that a corporate web site cannot.  It allows you to showcase your expertise in your field.

But try to avoid posting random thoughts or rant about some topic that does not resonate with your customer’s interests.  Your blog should be relevant and useful for your customer so you can get the most out of developing a relationship with them.

Perhaps more importantly than the traditional (sometimes stodgy) company web site is a blog site. If you don’t have a blog web site, you should consider creating one before 2010 is over. People appreciate being able to interact with the brands they patronize. The most techie advanced blog sites allow you to customize everything from adding your logo to feeding from your tweets. It allows everything to feed into one place and export from it as well. Your fans can post comments that can give validity to your point of view.

Not to mention, a blog is great for SEO.  The web crawlers & algorithms look for relevant keywords in the topics you discuss and rank them.

But a word of caution, your blog site should be consistent in it’s branding to your other touch points. So I would recommend getting professional assistance when designing it.

People love technology.  Apple has built it’s foundation on it…and so has YouTube.

The more hip you are to technology the more impressive you’ll be to your prospects and be able to grab their attention – which will hopefully translate to grabbing their business dollars.

Marketing messages are more interesting and sophisticated in video form.  And video does something even more important for you – it allows you to post your content to site “nests” like YouTube so that the viewer gets instant gratification on the topic they are searching for.  (More on this concept later.)

Of course it depends on who you’re competition is, but a video should draw your prospect into your “brand” and keep them there longer.

I’m talking about your online presence. To get the most that the internet has to offer, you should keep your online presence current. It’s best to update your web site every 2-3 years. That’s not to say that you let it go for that long, you should be adding fresh content VERY often, but a site re-design should happen every 3 years or so. If you let your site sit for too long, you’re sending the message to your clients & potential customers that it’s not a priority or that you’re “behind the times” or that your company lacks the resources to stay current. It’s like running the same ad in a magazine for 3 years in a row…gets stale. Your business is hopefully evolving and your web site should reflect that progress.

Not to mention, Search engine crawlers calculate how often your site changes and how your site changes and it becomes part of their algorithm for ranking your web site in searches.

If the Haiti tragedy taught us nothing else, it’s that we all have a strong sense of goodness. We long to connect with something meaningful & even possess a sense of responsibility to do so. To recognize there is a need…and to fill that need. George Clooney’s a great actor but what comes to mind for most of us is his generosity.  To organize the HOPE for Haiti event so quickly with so much celebrity support…amazing influence.

A great company does “good” in the world….contributes, connects. Your company should have a social strategy that gets you out there in the community building rapport…building relationships.

With all this tweeting, posting, texting, joining, etc going on (and they are all an integral part of your social media strategy) – people still long for a personal connection. It’s personal interaction that really builds relationships. So get a little soul…it will help define your company personality. It will help brand you.

If you just think about the strongest brands in the world…Coke, Apple, McDonald’s, Google – they all have a core set of ideas they stand for and every product or advertisement they present to the public encapsulates what their brand is all about.

Once you define who you are, you should stick to it.

I read, not too long ago, that the Mini is introducing a Mini SUV. What’s “mini” about an SUV? And if you are in the market for a small SUV, isn’t that a car? They marketed the original with a certain set of “core” ideas and now they’re taking that concept and twisting it so they can enter the Sport Utility Vehicle market. I may be wrong, but I’m guessing this idea isn’t going to go over well. We’ll see in 2011.

In the next 10 weeks, I’ll be posting my top 10 list of Marketing Must Do’s.
I’ll also be presenting these ideas at the next Lunch & Learn for Focused Business Solutions.

So subscribe to our feed & you’ll learn how to make your mark for 2010…courtesy of BlackDot Creative Marketing Co.

www.shopbedside.com

Often, it is very hard for business owners to look at their website with a unbiased eye. They see it as a product of pride and an investment of time and money. And, it is.

But to increase visibility and volume, a business must be progressive & your website should demonstrate that. It is really important to maintain a fresh look utilizing cutting edge technology.

Your website is about your product, but how you portray it is just as important. Especially in the retail,fashion world where you need to look with it. And even better than with it.
Everything within your website should have one purpose, getting a visitor to act.

Christen Black at BlackDot Creative Marketing Co. can help you do that!