Internet Marketing Strategy 2.0

From the article:

"All inbound marketers will agree: more 'Likes' for your Facebook business page are quite nice. But when has 'nice' ever been enough?

In and of itself, Likes are ultimately useless unless you're successfully converting them into leads for your business.

At the end of the day, the effectiveness of your marketing team is likely evaluated by metrics like traffic and leads.

If your Facebook page has 500 fans but is generating no traffic or leads for your website, you really don't have much to brag about.

And if all that "engagement" you're creating on your page isn't contributing to your team's goals, it's essentially worthless.

The good news is, Facebook fans offer a great opportunity for lead generation if you know how to leverage them.

As they say, it's not size that matters -- it's how you use it.

To get you well on your way to use Facebook effectively for lead generation, here are 6 guaranteed tactics for turning likes into leads."

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28657/6-Guaranteed-Tactics-to-Turn-Facebook-Likes-Into-Leads.aspx

Marcia Kadanoff, reports on a true content marketing story and lesson learned from it.

A customer wanted to market a specificic product online and two alternative approaches were chosen:

a) Infographic

b) Video testimonials matching customer personas

The results were pretty impressive. In fact while the infographic reached a huge number of people, it were the video testimonials, built precisely to talk to the different types of customer "profiles" that made all the sales.

Read the full article here: http://www.contentrules.com/blog/great-content-starts-by-understanding-marketing-funnel-at-your-company/

Dave Toliver at Mashable lays down the basics to get your social media followers to get involved, excited and raving positively about your company to their friends.

Here the key strategy points he suggests to adopt:

1. Give Your Customers a Place to Talk

Some companies are afraid to set up Facebook pages because they allow customers to comment, which means someone might write something negative. 

When customers complain on your brand’s Facebook page, you can respond and resolve issues. 

2. Integrate Social Media Into Your Customer Service

...Don’t open up the floor for complaints without a plan to handle them. Predict the complaints you may get and construct policies for replying to them. You should also plan on responding to fans who compliment you...  But if you really want to make customers happy, show happy customers your appreciation with coupons or other rewards.

3. Activate Your Existing Customer Base

...Think about how you currently contact your customer base and how you can use those communication channels to draw customers to your social media properties. 
 

4. Be Proactive

Set your brand apart by proactively interacting with customers who are talking about your brand, whether you’re thanking them for a compliment or helping them solve a problem.

5. Reward Influencers

Find the social media influencers for your audience and give them extras. This could be as simple as giving them advance notice of a special promotion, or complex as giving them a free trip and tour of your facilities. 
 

6. Create Compelling Content

Give your fans something of value on your page. 

7. Stand Out From the Crowd

By giving your fans a true voice on social media, or encouraging participation through photos and videos, you humanize the experience that much more. 

But there is a lot more advice, example and tips in the full original article. Check it out here:  http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/social-customer-experience/

Right on the mark. 8/10

Excellent article by Aaron Strout on practical methods to create high-value content by taking advantage of the many assets, existing content, and resources we have already available.

Highlights, from the article include:
 

"Many companies are not particularly well-equipped when it comes to creating content.

Many are used to creating ads, collateral and e-mails.

What most companies don’t realize is that the answer to many of their content needs may already exist within their four walls.

Here are three ways to think about creating content:

1) Curating Other People’s (or Companies’) Content

The conundrum for most businesses is that they know they need more content yet they don’t feel like they can possibly create enough content on their own.

One great way to present engaging content is to “curate” other people’s or companies’ content.

...

2) Taking Advantage of Opportunities to Capture Content
 

One of the easiest ways to capture content is to attend live events. The rationale is that most live events like a trade show or conference feature numerous speakers and sponsors who are domain experts.

.....

3) Cross-Purposing Existing Content

One of the thing companies forget is that they may already possess some content in the form of white papers, executive interviews and webcast recordings. Assuming that content is somewhat evergreen, there are a number of ways to cross-purpose that content into other formats and thus cross-post content into more social channels.

...."

Excellent advice and practical tips and tactics that can be put immediately to use. 

Recommended. 9/10 

When marketers and SEOs decide to target a highly competitive keyword, it could take months or even years to see meaningful movement in the SERPs.

But the search landscape is shifting, and more searchers are typing in long tail search terms to find what they're looking for in search engines.

Not surprisingly, marketers and SEOs are responding by shifting their attention to long tail search optimization.

If you haven't started integrating long tail keywords into your search strategy or you're not sure it's the right move for your site, here's the what, why, and how of long tail search.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28912/The-Ultimate-Guide-for-Mastering-Long-Tail-Search.aspx

From the article intro:

"We hear this all the time. People want to be heard. That’s why social media is taking off like it is. Even the Godfather of social, Mark Zuckerberg, talks this way and he is betting Facebook’s future on this desire for people to share and even overshare, if that’s what it takes to be heard.

If being heard is so important then why does a recent study show that many companies that are involved in social media aren’t placing listening, and the incumbent response, as one of the highest priorities?

eMarketer reported on a study conducted by MarketTools and found the following with regard to companies hearing and responding to customer complaints.

First a look at whether or not companies even THINK that their customers complain online."

Read on: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/11/is-social-listening-more-valuable-than-your-message.html

"The latest statistic by Forrester Research indicates that an average 71% of shopping carts are abandoned before finishing checkout.

That is over 7 in 10 users and the result is an estimated 18 billion in losses.

The numbers should not be taken lightly, but shockingly few are doing anything about it.

According to Listrak only 13% of the top 500 online retails are attempting to recover abandoned shopping carts.

Listrak claims it has helped its customers gain 20-35% back from decreases in abandoned shopping carts.

What steps can your business take right now to see increases like that?"

Google just launched Google+ Pages for Business.

From the Google official announcement: "Google+ Pages: Have real conversations with the right people
To get your site on Google+, you first need to create a Google+ Page.

Highlights:

The Google+ badge: 

To help your users find your page and start sharing, there are two buttons you can add to your site by visiting our Google+ badge configuration tool:

The Google+ icon, a small icon that directly links to your Page.

The Google+ badge, which we’re introducing in the coming days. This badge lets people add your page to their circles without leaving your site, and allows them to get updates from your site via Google+.

Extend the power of +1, stand out in Google search
You can also link your site to your Google+ page so that all your +1s -- from your Page, your website, and search results -- will get tallied together and appear as a single total.

Potential visitors will be more likely to see the recommendations your site has received, whether they’re looking at a search result, your website, or your Page, meaning your +1’s will reach not only the 40 million users of Google+, but all the people who come to Google every day.

You can link your site to your Page either using the Google+ badge or with a piece of code. To set this up, visit our Google+ badge configuration tool."

Find out everything about it here: http://www.google.com/+/business/ 

Great advice from Copyblogger Brian Clark. He strike four critical points for creating a successful online business that I have had to discover myself the hard way. 

Here they are in my own words:

1) Don't put all of your bets on one horse alone

2) Don't start from a great idea that is only in your head - start from a problem people realyy have

3) Analyze, plan, strategize. Don't just do. Think strategy before declaring war.

4) Test, verify, experiment, make mistakes.

These at least are the ones that I think are truly worthwhile pondering. Brian's original order and format may have been a bit different, but the hard truth is that most new online netrepreneurs are still trying to build businesses, the old fashioned way.

And that's not going to work.

Read the full article here:  http://www.copyblogger.com/no-sales-syndrome/

Highly recommended for new online entrepreneurs. 9/10

Excerpted from the article:

"The ability to see what is valid (or a “reliable, relevant resource” to use the jargon of a teacher without a classroom) is becoming so incredibly important for both learners, marketers and citizens in general.
 

Those who have the ability to curate, or a strong notion of what curation implies, are the ones who will be leaders in this new century.

The rest of us will be following them, learning from them and adopting/dropping their stream of breadcrumbs as they mark the way.

As affiliate marketers, we’d do well to learn all we can so that we can become those curators in the industry." 

Read more:  http://paypertrends.com/2011/11/first-droppers-and-curation/