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 Jan Zimmerman, author of "Marketing on the Internet" (Maximum Press) has recently written "Web Marketing for Dummies" (Wiley). We are reprinting with permission some marketing techniques outlined in Chapter 7 of her book that are relevant to small ecommerce websites.
Jan says Word-of-Web methods work better for tightly targeted market segments than they do for mass marketing or volume traffic. Your site should be live and functioning properly before you drive significant traffic to it, and at that point, she recommends you allot about half a day per week for online marketing.
Becoming an Online Gorilla with Guerrilla Marketing
"Guerrilla marketing" employs somewhat unconventional promotion methods (online or offline) to reach your audience, usually at low cost. These methods often take more imagination and energy than money. However, when executed with surprise and flair, they can bring a steady supply of prequalified new traffic to your site.
Spending time and money on these or other online guerrilla marketing techniques is worthwhile for any business site, with the exception of minimal, business card sites or for sites that exist to serve only a preselected audience.
Keys to success
Low-cost, word-of-Web techniques take time. Remember that adage about small business: It's your money or your life. Because some of these techniques can consume a lot of your life, start with only one or two. You can always add more later. There are four simple rules for success:
- Follow your fish. Don't waste time on techniques that don't reach your target audience.
- Seven is your lucky number. That's the magic number of times that people must see your name or Web site to remember it. Guess what? Seven is how many times you should appear on any one blog, board, chat room, or network to see results.
- Plan your work and work your plan. You won't be successful if you post a message one week and then disappear for a month. Make your life easier by scheduling marketing activities for one morning a week or half an hour each day.
- Keep track of your results. How else will you know which techniques work and which ones don't? Set up a spreadsheet that shows the name of the site, type of activity, date, and outcome.
Tracking effectiveness can be tricky. Your statistics generally list referrer URLs when someone clicks from another site to yours (more on this in Chapter 14). However, you need to plan ahead to capture the source of calls, e-mails, or URLs typed into the address field of a browser.
"Who Ya Gonna Call" Tip
Ask your developer to create a list of redirect URLs (for example, www.YourDomain.com/R1) to deploy in different marketing efforts, just as you include department numbers in the return address of a direct mail piece or print ad. You can point these URLs to any Web page on your site, but they will appear in your statistics as the entry page. Also, ask your developer for a list of forwarding e-mail addresses that you can use to track responses from different marketing efforts. For phone calls, set up different phone extensions or simply ask, "How did you hear about us?" Record these variations on your spreadsheet.
Niche marketing
To become a powerful marketing gorilla, fish where your fish are. In other words, target your audience very carefully. Relatively few seniors use MySpace.com for social networking, but they might use chat rooms on healthcare sites. If you have a B2B site for oceanographic equipment, there's no point in blogging realtors - unless they lease underwater property. The Internet audience is so large that even a small niche can be profitable.
Tip
Think rifle, not shotgun. You can no more afford to spread your word-of-Web time and efforts too thin than you can afford to spread your advertising dollars. Target one market at a time, build traffic by using one or two of the guerrilla techniques described in this chapter, and then move on to the next market. Your competitors' online buzz activities can also give you a clue about what's effective.
Even if you select only one word-of-Web method, try to show up on several sites multiple times, whether they're blogs, directories, chats, or message boards. A critical mass of online appearances lends your site credibility.
Buzzing in the Blogosphere
Blah, blah, blog! On your site and on others, you can build buzz in the more-contemporary incarnation of the message board: the blog. While popular with political pundits and journalists, and with absolute numbers growing rapidly, blogs are not for everyone. You care about blogs only if your target audience uses them.
Deciding whether blogs will work for you
According to a 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 39 percent of adult American Internet users read blogs and only 8 percent write them. Many of the remaining 61 percent don't even have a clue what a blog is. While the Pew study estimates the number of blogs at about 12 million, it doesn't account for inactive or abandoned blogs, and more than half are personal diaries. Many business people don't have time to write blogs. If they do use a blog, it's as an easier to way to communicate than a message board or bulk e-mail.
The Pew study also detected significant differences in blog use by age. Not surprisingly, more than half (54 percent) of bloggers in 2006 were under 30, roughly evenly divided between males and females. Other studies show that gender distribution changes significantly with age, with females representing 63 percent of bloggers from 13 - 17, but declining to 26 percent of bloggers over 48. Be very sure that the people you want to reach are blogging. The adoption rate for this Internet innovation, like others, tends to lag behind publicity. By the time blogs reach those over 30 and saturate the Web, the next wave of innovation already will have crested.
Remember
With the exception of blogs in the technical, advertising, lifestyle, and entertainment fields, and a few for industry insiders, most blogs are a better vehicle for B2C promotion than for B2B. Follow your fish!
Selecting the right blogs
Before you start posting or requesting mention in blogs, it's a good idea to review a number of them. The blog directories in Table 7-2 are a good way to start. For your first filter, try Technorati.com, which claims to rank some 55 million blogs by frequency of use. Select only among the top 10 percent because there's not much point participating on a blog that is viewed by only its writer and a few friends.
Table 7-2 Blog Resources and Search Engines
Tip
When searching a blog directory, search for tags that appear on your list of keywords. (See Chapter 10 for more information on keywords.)
After you have a manageable list of blogs to visit, look at frequency of use, the quality of the participants (are they influencers who tell others?), point of view of the author, and the quality of the dialogue.
Getting the most out of blogs
If you decide appearing in the blog would be beneficial, you have several options:
- Comment on an article written by the blogger. Offer additional information, not criticism. Though you want to be seen as an expert in the field, don't openly confront the blog author, who might simply remove your posts. This is business; keep your ego in check. As with chat rooms and message boards, try not to pontificate. Keep your blog responses short and open ended. Be sure to include a link back to your site.
- E-mail the blog owner to ask for a mention in his blog. Find bloggers who've written about your industry through directories or inbound links. E-mail the blogger with your request, explaining why you like their blogs, and why your news/product/service matters to their readers. Perhaps you can offer a free sample, or at least a link on your site. Thank them for their time, however they respond.
- Note blogs that accept paid advertising for future use. (See Chapter 12.) Some blogs now accept banner ads, sponsorships, or pay per click ads from search engines.
Remember
Bloggers often exchange links to each other's sites or blogs. Do it! Links to your Web site from a blog make your site seem relevant and might enhance your search engine ranking. This benefit alone is an important business incentive to blog. As with chat rooms or message boards, monitor your selected blogs and try to comment once a week for several months. Again, use a different e-mail address with each blog to determine which blogs are generating prospects. Click-throughs from blogs to your Web site show up in your referrer statistics.
This isn't rocket science; it's marketing. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't, switch to another blog or change tactics.
Tip
If you put a blog on your own Web site, submit it to as many of these directories as possible. Appearing in directories can drive more readers to your blog, encourage links from other blogs, and help improve your search engine ranking.
You can find Part 2 of this special feature online:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m04/abu0188/s04
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