Hello Reader! You have probably wondered if I 'fell off the earth', as I have not been posting for a while. Truth is I've been hunkered down in my modest bungalow, trying to figure out my next on-line marketing move. With the current economic turmoil out there you would think I would just give up my dream of a home-based, on-line marketing empire?
The news media would have you believe that the sky is falling. This is mis-information. A few 'criminally-greedy' wall street players, have brought this upon themselves and the world market.
The government, in trying to clean up the mess made by others, is only exacerbating the issues.
Emotions run the stock market. Bad news causes stock to rise, a perverse reaction for sure! Bad news should not cause investors to profit, but it has been this way since the beginning of the stock market. The wealthy people are only going to get richer because of the government 'bail-out'. Are you going to see any of this bail-out money? Not unless you are a large bank like B of A.
The BlogWorld Expo 2008 experience in Las Vegas, really opened my eyes to what is possible in on-line marketing. The presentations I saw there like Gary Vaynerchuk's, www.winelibrarytv.com really drove home the point that hard work, long hours, and dedication to your dream, no matter what or who may try to talk you out of it, is the only strategy that will bring you success.
If you truly have done your homework, are or becoming a recognized authority in your chosen market niche, and have a passion for your chosen products or services offered on your website or landing pages, and you post every day, you will eventually find that web traffic will find you!
Gary stated that he responded to every email or comment made on his website for an entire year. He engaged the customer for his wine products in a meaningful conversation, and others discovered his knowledge and dedication were the real deal. He spent years studying wines and food, so that he was able to answer every question posed to the satisfaction of the requester. He also visited other authorities in the wine business, left comments on their blogs or websites, and started a conversation that helped him to grow his business to a current value of over $60-million dollars!
If you are genuine, people will sense your expertise and want to do business with you. If you treat people poorly, your reputation will be ruined, as news travels faster on the web than any other medium today. Newspapers are printing hours-old news. The tv news is at least 2 hours behind real time to assemble the stories and air them in edited-down video formats.
The web is instantaneous, Twitter, My Space, Facebook and other sites are read by millions of people per day, and this is the new paradigm for Web 3.0. People want the truth, a space that the traditional news media cannot compete with, nor do they have the time or money to fully analyze the data, and provide a resultant meaningful story.
Currently, they report something very irresponsibly, like "extremely high fire danger today!" And the insane person with the highway flares goes out to wreak havoc on an innocent society by startng fires on the day with guess what? "The Highest Fire Danger". How stupid can they be? Why not announce that the fire department will be attending training today, "Gee, I hope there won't be any fires today"? (I got off-subject here, but that 'high-fire-danger news-reporting' issue makes me mad!).
The relevance of the web is so pervasive, that people like Matt Drudge are now followed by Presidential Candidates! Matt has become a hit because he publishes timely stories, that are controversial to traditional news-gathering techniques and institutions, and he is quicker to publish before the mainstream media even can discern that the story is developing. Matt has become an authority in his space.
How will you become an authority in your market niche, and how do you convince your customers that you are the real deal? Most important technique taken from BlogWorld Expo 2008. BE YOURSELF! BE HONEST! Be the kind of marketer people like to talk about in positive terms. Become the best at what you do. Outshine the competition by being as authentic as you possibly can be!
Truly successful marketers put their customers first. Need to exchange a bad product? Fed-Ex it overnight and eat the cost. You will have gained the trust of a customer who was unhappy, and now is very happy with the way you have treated and valued their business. Go out of your way to be helpful and you will beat your competitor's who do not do this or do not even care!
This customer will talk positively about you, and cause others to want the experience of the same level of service 'that they are not receiving elsewhere'.
How many of you are tired of voice-menus? Companies used to answer their telephones. Now it's all buried in voice-menus, hoping you will quit before successfully obtaining the ear of an actual human being! Make sure you place your telephone number on your contact information page, answer you telephone on the third ring maximum, and if necessary call your customers back promptly.
They will be totally shocked and surprised at the level of care this demonstrates to them, and you can usually resolve the issue during this brief telephone exchange. Use this time to ask your customer if the experience could be improved, or if they could pass along their positive experience in a forum comment?
Customer Service has been pushed to the bottom of the priorities of most of the companies I deal with. And yet they tell you in their advertising, how much they value their customers! If you only do this simple act consistently, you will see a tremendous boost to your traffic numbers, serving the people who are making your company grow! Imagine a reader seeing all of the positive feedback from previous customers! Goodwill will be established, and you will be successful.
Social Networking is the current buzzword. I know of one software architect that is releasing his product using Social Media, and 'viral-marketing' as his main marketing focus. In this way he tightly targets his potential customers, who are already savvy web users or successful Pay-per-click, Affiliate Marketers, and his software tool will be much easier to market to this selected group! By the way, the product is called iSpionage at www.ispionage.com
Please leave me a comment below, I will respond! Respectfully, Nicholas
A start-up company chronicles the processes used to make a decent living online through various marketing techniques.
