Online Marketing

UPDATE:  In the comments, niche marketing blogger Andy Beard recommended the Article Marketer service as a viable method for article distribution. They even have a free service available, so if you're interested in trying your hand at article marketing, it's worth a try.
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I just happened across a post by Matt Jones, who's asking if Article Marketing is a Waste of Time. Matt submitted 20 articles to a couple of popular article directories and was less than impressed with the results (2 incoming links from low trust sites). Submitting to free article sites is one of the most commonly mentioned ways of building links and traffic for your web site, and I've even heard it touted as a means of search engine optimization. I think it's a complete waste of time.

Who Republishes Articles?

Think about the type of links you're going to get by submitting to article directories. Do any of the reputable sites you read post this type of content? The reality is that sites republishing free articles are generally of very low quality. Sites that regularly publish quality, original content aren't going to water down their pages with this sort of duplicate content. Instead, your article is going to end up on Made for Adsense sites with a lot of other republished content. Those aren't the links you want, and they're unlikely to drive much traffic either.

If you must submit to article directories, make sure you're writing new content to submit, and don't publish those same articles on your own site. At least that way you won't be hurting yourself with duplicate content. But if you're going to go through the trouble to write fresh content, there are better uses for those articles that can garner links from quality sites. Like most things worth doing, though, it does require a bit of work.

An Alternative - Guest Blogging

Instead of writing up your article for the free directories, consider writing it for a particular site as a guest author.

Find a few blogs that write on similar topics and contact the authors. Let them know that you're trying to get more exposure for your blog and you'd like to write an article for their site. You'll find many authors who are open to the idea if you make it clear that you're going to provide them with a quality article, meaning:

• Provide original content that will be published only on their blog (nothing you're going to publish yourself or submit to directories).
• Your writing should meet the site's editorial standards. Think of this like an audition, and a chance to attract new readers. Make it some of your best work.
• Solicit feedback on the article's topic. Be flexible (within reason).
• Show some links to your best blog posts to demonstrate that you can write a good post. Once you've done this a few times, show links to the other site's where you've written guest posts.
• No blatant self-promotion. No affiliate links.

Publishing on other blogs in this fashion is definitely more work. You have to write an original, quality article for each site, and you have to do the legwork to set up these guest blogging opportunities. The payoff, though, is that you can obtain quality links from trusted web sites. If you enjoy writing articles and want to be read by a wider audience, all while building quality links, you might find this method well worth the effort.

BusinessWeek has an interesting story about local search marketing, and a small company called Skyhook Wireless that's hoping to change the way local businesses advertise on the internet. The major ad networks already provide some tools that allow advertisers to target specific geographic areas, but this new technology promises even more granular targeting, so ads could be displayed only to users within a few blocks of a local business.

It's yet to be seen if Skyhook's technology will be picked up by any of the bigger online ad networks, but they're reportedly in talks with both Google and Yahoo. If we do see this made available to advertisers, it will give smaller businesses even more power to direct their message to the exact customers who are most likely to buy. A Chinese food restaurant could advertise only to customers within their precise delivery area. A small, local bookstore could target their ads to users within a few blocks, hoping to attract walk-in customers from that coffee shop down the street that offers free Wi-Fi access.

More precise ad targeting can only benefit small businesses with limited marketing budgets. The downside, perhaps, is that more targeting options will probably make it even more difficult for do-it-yourself marketers to manage their campaigns efficiently. More options too often leads to more confusion. However, with the increased conversion rates expected from targeting only the users that are most likely to buy, advertisers will likely find that it's worth their time to learn how to properly zero in on their market. And those who don't have the time to learn may find that hiring an outside consultant to manage their online campaigns can pay for itself.

This sort of powerful targeting isn't available yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on, especially for neighborhood businesses that cater to very specific areas.

Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year for US retailers. This year, Black Friday was a bit blacker than usual for Wal-Mart, as their web site was crushed under the load of online shoppers trying to beat the crowds by shopping from home.  The good news is that web site owners can learn a lot from Wal-Mart's mistakes, even if you're not handling millions of visitors like the retail giant.

Do your IT people know what your Marketing people are doing?

Wal-Mart's marketing department did a great job of promoting their website in their advertising efforts, including television advertising to inform shoppers that their Black Friday sale prices were also available online. They promoted an exclusive preview of several specials on the web site on Thanksgiving day, and reportedly stepped up their online advertising campaigns (at the time of this posting you can still see special "Black Friday" themed Walmart ads in rotation for certain keywords on Google Adwords).

Apparently these advertising efforts were effective, but their servers just weren't ready for it.  Maybe there wasn't enough communication between the folks running the web site and the marketing staff, or maybe they just underestimated the success of their ads, but the result was the same - disappointed customers.  As a business owner, it's vital to keep your web staff informed of any new marketing efforts, especially when your web site is featured prominently in your ads.

Monitor the web

As early as November 9, Wal-Mart's Black Friday sales ad was leaked onto the internet, and widely circulated on bargain-hunter and technology news sites. So widely circulated, in fact, that Wal-Mart couldn't possibly have missed it.  This early look at the super-low sale prices drew even more attention to the specials, and Wal-Mart should have been able to anticipate an increased demand, especially from net-savvy computer buyers salivating over some particularly low PC and game system prices.

Smaller businesses are also susceptible to the effects of online rumors and leaks, though they may not be as widely publicized as the Wal-Mart leak.  You can take steps to stay informed, though, and it's so easy that there's no excuse for letting this one slide. One of the easiest methods is with Google Alerts, which can email you whenever your company name is mentioned anywhere on the internet. In addition to keeping on top of rumors and leaks, Google Alerts can help you stay on top of reviews of your company and other mentions on external web sites.  It can also come in handy for monitoring the buzz around your competitors.

Be honest with your customers

Another Wal-Mart goof that was apparent early in the day was failing to acknowledge that their web site had fallen victim to it's own success. When the web site began to falter, visitors were greeted with a page that said the site was down for "scheduled maintenance". Scheduled maintenance on the busiest shopping day of the year?

To Wal-Mart's credit, they reportedly later replaced the "scheduled maintenance" message with one that acknowledged the higher than anticipated number of visitors.  If your best efforts to prepare for a surge in visitors still falls short, it's important to just be honest about it.  As soon as it becomes necessary to combat the rush of traffic, make it reasons clear to your customers. People appreciate honesty, and it's better to admit that you have to many customers than to give a weak excuse that no one's going to believe anyway.

There are worse problems to have

In the end, running a advertising campaign that's too successful probably isn't the worst thing that can happen to your business. At least you know your marketing staff is doing well, and too much traffic isn't a terribly difficult problem to solve, as long as you have the time to plan for it.  Still, it's even better to have a huge surge of customers and be able to handle them, so make sure your web site is up to the task before you step up your marketing efforts, and learn to anticipate traffic surges before they bring your site to it's knees.

I'd just finished designing a half dozen Yellow Pages ads for a client when a timely blog post caught my eye. It was Geoff Wilson at PseudoFish heralding the coming death of the Yellow Pages. While Google Local and other web sites may be taking business away from the offline directories, there are still plenty of reasons for small businesses to continue advertising in their local directories:

Offline Customers

There are, of course, still a great many people who use the internet only occasionally or not at all.  Robert Scoble thinks this will only be an issue for another 20 years, and he may be right, but I know an awful lot of people in their 20's and 30's who rarely even check their email, much less use the internet to find local businesses. Many of these folks will eventually come online, but I suspect it will take more than 20 years for the number of infrequent internet users to shrink so small that they can be disregarded completely.

Offline Businesses

Those of us already online may still find ourselves turning to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses.  It may seem strange to big city dwellers, but in small town America there are still an enormous number of small businesses that have no internet presence at all, while others are just catching on to the need for at least a basic web site and email address.  Here in Sutter Creek (population ~3000), I still need to reach for the yellow pages if I want to find a local plumber or electrician.

Tourists

Some people may shudder at the thought of a week without internet access, but a lot of folks like to stay unplugged while they're on vacation.  And while many hotels now offer internet access, it's not nearly as ubiquitous as that other book that you'll find in nearly every hotel room (not the one that the Gideons put there).  Most of my own Yellow Pages usage comes when I'm away from home, looking to get some food delivered or to call a cab.  Businesses that cater to out-of-towners may never abandon the Yellow Pages, at least as long as every hotel room is stocked with a copy.

Motivated Leads

People who find your business in the yellow pages are actively looking for someone to do business with, and they are ready to make a call. Those who find you via the web may be doing a bit more research on their own before they get in touch.  These are potential customers as well, so you need a web site that satisfies the "researchers," but you can't neglect the people who just want to pick up the phone and talk to you.

Price

Even as more and more consumers turn to the internet to find local businesses, the printed business directories are still one of the cheapest ways to reach local customers. Just try taking your annual budget for Yellow Page ads and put that money instead into an AdWords campaign. You might be disappointed.

Online is still the future...

Yellow page advertising is not going anywhere; it's just too cheap, easy, and accessible for small businesses to ignore. The internet will certainly continue to command a larger share of the market, and businesses will have to adapt to the realities of the online world in order to survive, but that doesn't mean abandoning proven forms of offline advertising.

The yellow pages will not die just because some consumers claim they don't use it. It's going to stick around until businesses stop seeing a return on their ad dollars.