One such niche site is Markdown.com, recently launched by Glenn Beck. This site is different in that it will only offer deals from companies with values that are near and dear to Beck’s heart. For example, today’s deal is from Chocolate.com. Chocolate.com offers products not from a mass wholesaler, but rather from small business owners all over the country. Beck’s vision for the site is much like his usual dogma “Value and Values”. He willonly promote sites on his Markdown.com that have the values he thinks are worthwhile. Therefore, he is able to reach a very niche audience who will appreciate his efforts, and will in many cases want to support his causes. In this particular case, it happens to be small chocolatiers from all over the country. Not a bad first choice – everyone loves chocolate, and most people in the country want to do all they can to help bolster small businesses. This site is different, enough so that WebProNews contributor Chris Crum posted the About Us page. I think it’s worth reading, so I would suggest you hope over to read all of it, but I’ll post part of it here just so you can see what I am talking about:

“To put it simply, we believe that we can only be a great company if we are a good one. That means being good to our employees, our partners and our customers. It means making the right decisions, not just the easy or profitable ones. But, most of all, it means being the kind of place that we’re proud to say we work at; the kind of business that we’d want to do business with ourselves; and the kind of company that we’d be excited to send our own family and friends to.”

That’s valuable. I think it’s important to do business this way, and honestly, I will look to support this kind of site more than any other – it’s the way business should be done, and it’s the way we do business here.

Marketing on discount sites such as these will continue to be a trend. Since women are the main shoppers, and so many have started shopping online in the last 10 years or so, they are going to expect coupons and discounts. Whenever we go to buy something online, I know I search for a coupon code or wait for some discount first. The ability to target your audience, through niche or location, or a combination of the two, is going to become more and more important, and a great way to drive traffic to your site.

So, have you used a discount site to market your product or service? How’d you do? Would you do it again?

Social Media can be great for your business – great opportunities for marketing. Awesome with local search, etc. But do I think this is now the one and only way to market your business? No way. Do I think that Search Marketing, in a more general sense, that includes social is the one and only way to market your business? No, but it is the best, most cost effective and targeted way to market your business.

Just a couple of the more salient points in the argument – search engine marketing helps people who are actively looking for your product or service to find it – they don’t have to know who you are first. Social media primarily helps spread the word among friends and followers. Someone has to know who you are first, even if you initiate the relationship – it’s not going to go anywhere if no one knows who you are – so search engine marking needs to be the first priority when planning a marketing budget for your web site. This will lay the ground work for any social media and local search. I mean, if you are gonna use local search, you should probably optimize for it, especially if you are offering goods and services that are locally based, as in they can’t be shipped. If you are a dentist or install pools, you’ll want to optimize for your locality as well as the goods and services you are offering. Once you have that all in place, or concurrently, you’ll want to get into social media to “spread the word” – social media really is the new word of mouth advertising – so you should use it to your advantage as much as possible – and track what is being said about you online. People are much faster to complain about a restaurant or other business via Twitter or Facebook, than they are to promote it – so if you want it to be used to your benefit, make sure you are paying attention to what’s being said so you can rectify any complaints or issues ASAP.

This will continue to be an discussion as social media gets bigger and bigger. Social media has absolutely changed the way every size of business markets – of course it did – it’s cheap, it’s relatively easy, and it gets some results. It’s essentially put marketing in the hands of the consumer – which is great – more power to the consumer – but this is also why you really have to pay attention to reputation management – it’s essential to know what people are saying about you – the good and the bad. Social media has made it essential that you be friendly, outstanding, and special, or you are going to be tweeted about. If you are rude – tweet, tweet. If you are ordinary, no tweet. If you go above and beyond, likely tweet. Gotta go for the above and beyond – and really that makes everyone work harder, try to be nicer – win win, right?

There’s a great article over at Mashable with some tips on how Social Media has changed Marketing, as well as some things you can do to get started. The author recommends getting your employees tweeting and using social media to promote your company. This is a great idea – but I’d keep in mind that it is the first place they will turn sour on you if you part ways in an unfriendly manner – just sayin’. We’ve all seen it happen a time or two.

As is widely known, Google’s mission statement so far has been: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. I guess it makes sense that Google’s product is, in more accurate terms is actually knowledge. They are compiling knowledge and making it easier for users to find. I don’t think too many people are going to be switching all the terminology associated with ‘search’ right away, but who knows down the line? Google, for the foreseeable future, owns 70% of the market share in what we now call ‘search’. Perhaps down the road the terminology will switch to Knowledge Engine Optimization – rather than Search Engine Optimization. This change in terminology could have a desirable effect on some site owners. If they know that they need to provide information…i.e. – knowledge, it may make them more likely to produce more relevant sites, copy, etc.

As Michael Arrington from TechCrunch pointed out ‘The problem is, “search” still means “search.”’ Google hasn’t really promoted this change, and they have made some internal personnel changes along with this name change. I think what it gets down to is specifics. Search will always be search, but that will become known as the user end, not the provider end. Google is making these subtle but purposeful changes to let their staff, and later, the public know that they are in the business of providing knowledge. If your site does not provide knowledge, it probably won’t do too well in Google’s “Knowledge” rankings. At least, that’s where this is headed, in my opinion. Not a drastic change in actuality. Google has always maintained that relevance was key. If you have a highly relevant site for your niche, topic or keyphrase, then you will do well. If not, then your site might not rank as well as you would like. Google, in it’s massive book scanning, map making, etc., etc….has been on a knowledge gathering spree all along. Perhaps they have decided that it’s time to drive the focus on making that knowledge as accessible to the public as possible. Or maybe they are just being incredibly arrogant. What’s your call?

That being said, social media is good, too, and should be a secondary consideration. Jamie Turner over at Mashable has a pretty interesting post about the Social Media ROI Cycle. According to Jamie’s post, there are three stages of a social media ROI cycle: Launch, Management and Optimization. A bit backwards from the way we do and SEO strategy, at least from a web developer’s best practices standpoint. We would, depending on what the client wanted to undertake, recommend for a new site, while the copy is being developed, optimization going forward would be a great thing – ready for the search engines at launch. Any social media strategy should be on top of a traditional SEO campaign.

This is of course the best case scenario, but it makes the most sense. Once you launch, you manage, or analyze and tweak your on going SEO efforts, which might include some social media. Regularly re-examining your strategy will help you decide if social media is a good fit for your company. Regular tweaking of your ongoing SEO is a must. Good copy, a well developed site, and carefully constructed SEO is always going to give you a good ROI. Social media is great, and has been the icing on many cakes so far, and it will continue to be a major part of any online marketing strategy. But SEO is the cake, it’s fundamental.

There are many, many ways to plan and implement SEO strategy, and some of them do fall into a grey area. A really good SEO won’t try most of them, and will stick to what is considered “white hat” or “ethical SEO”. Overstock.com, as of yesterday, their rankings dropped to the 5th or 6th pages for many phrases that they had been ranking well for in the past, according to the Wall Street Journal. Overstock approached colleges and universities, asking them to link to product pages for bunk beds and other items with a 10% off discount for college students and faculty. It’s a good idea, except that it doesn’t fall within Google guidelines. I don’t know that I would call it unethical. More stupid, since you really don’t want to be penalized by Google. Therefore, it falls into the “grey” category.
JC Penny has also has some trouble in recent weeks with Google. It seems that JC Penny did not do their homework before hiring an SEO, and ended up getting more than they bargained for. You’d think they would have questions for this SEO when they were suddenly ranking first for everything from area rugs to dresses. It was eventually brought to light that the SEO was employing some seriously stupid, and majorly black hat SEO techniques. I guess the guy paid a good bit to throw a couple thousand links back to JC Penny all over the web with anchor text like “dresses” and “samsonite luggage” and hundreds more on sites all over the web. Some had a vague relevancy, but most did not. So, JC Penny’s rankings are tanking. JC Penny is also firing back, unappreciative of the “exposé” by the New York Times, or Google’s response. Within hours JC Penny’s rankings all fell significantly.

So what is up Google’s sleeve after a month of big retailers using some grey hat and black hat strategies to gain rankings? They’ve come up with algorithm designed to weed out “cheaters” and low quality sites. What’s a low quality site? Any site that does not serve it’s own purpose: link and content farms, ones with no copy or little copy, just ads, or copied content. The new algo will help Google determine how people interact with the sites. It’s supposed to weed out low quality sites, but the specifics of how it works, of course, have not been released. Some data from Chrome, I am sure helps them determine what users consider low quality sites.

I think that no matter what search engine you use, you have to consider what has always been the case with search. This algo changes none of that – you still have to go with high quality content, fresh content. And a white hat SEO…

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380306,00.asp
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/02/25/did-googles-algorithm-update-go-far-enough-on-content-farms

I think a marketing budget is one of the last things that should be cut, right along with the rent and the lights. Marketing is what keeps clients coming through the door. This chiropractor either didn’t know that, or was in such deep financial trouble, that there was nothing he could do about it. I hope, for his sake and that of the web designer, that this thing doesn’t sour people for both of them. Makes for interesting reading, however.

The article: 10 Trends for Online Marketers in 2011, by John Arnold of Entrepreneur Magazine, is a nice snapshot of what I think are some pretty relevant search marketing techniques for this year. Definitely worth taking a look.

Some of the things he mentions, such as local search, I have posted about here and think is very important. Google Places, Foursquare, Facebook Places and other applications make it easy to get your business found by the people in your community. Read up, it’s gonna be what makes a difference in your bottom line this year, as consumers will begin to expect to be able to find you using these applications, and will most likely check to see if you have a mobile coupon or other discount.

Instant Search has been around for a bit now, and I actually think it’s pretty cool. I posted about it a while back, so check here for more information, and how it might affect your business.

As always, it is really important to monitor your social media marketing,
from your online reputation, to what makes your customers do a happy dance, you need to know what’s happening out there, and this gives you an instant line on what your customers think of you, and your product or service.

I think 2011 will be the year that online television really takes off. Between people becoming more aware of where their dollars are going, and the availability of online television, it’s gonna be a hot commodity this year. Thinking about ways to leverage this information for your business will be a good way to spend your marketing dollars, since advertising on the web, and advertising on web tv will have some overlapping properties. If you’d like more information on making web tv advertising an option for your business, check out my posts about it from last year. With the advent of websites like Hulu.com, more and more people have canceled their cable and have turned to these sites to get the shows they want to see.

There are so many ways to market your company on the Web. This year will be another year of expanding technology, and with it will come the expansion of ways to reach your customer base. If you take one thing away from this, let it be that search marketing needs to be in your marketing budget. Maybe defining what works best for your company will take some tweaking, but it’ll be worth it at the end of the year when you see where your web efforts have paid off.

A few folks from TKG went up to the Browns / Steelers slaughter game on Sunday, as well. About half of us had a really great time – the half that was wearing black and gold. The other half, well, lets just say the tailgating and great food made for a fun morning, and leave it at that. Kidding aside, it’s great to work with a group of people who like to hang out together. It fosters great working relationships, cooperation, and teamwork. It doesn’t hurt that these folks are a lot of fun, to boot.

I hope that you were able to spend some time over the last few weeks with good friends and family, as well, as it’s now time to get back to the grind, and we’ll need the fortitude offered by all those cookies and um, beverages, to keep us warm as we power through the coming winter months.

NE Ohio seems to stand at the ready for whatever comes our way. The political scene is a little less bleak. Businesses are hitting the ground running after a great holiday shopping season. We are done with this recession, we’re rebounding – ready to do business, ready to make some money – for ourselves – and help our clients find the best ways to do that as well. I hope that as you plan your marketing budget for 2011, you seriously consider including some SEO and SEM. Not only is it incredibly cost effective, it is the way the world/business/markets are trending. I am looking forward to 2011. It’s going to be the year America lands back on her feet, and TKG will be here to do our part. It’s gonna be a great year!

We all know that Facebook can be leveraged for marketing purposes, but not all small businesses are going to get the greatest benefit from it. Take for example, the wedding photographer featured in the article. She states that for her:
“Facebook is huge for networking. As far as marketing goes, it’s the best tool,” said Guenin, 32, who promotes weddings and other events she has photographed on the fast-growing social media site. “

I can see why Facebook would be a great fit for her. Her business is highly social. She friends her clients when she accepts a project. She can upload pictures from her weddings and other events, allowing her clients to share them, all marked of course, with her logo. Free advertising. People like what they see, especially if she uploads the best or most interesting shots, gets lots of comments on them, and remember that when they need a photographer for their own events. It’s a great setup, especially with such ease of use and low or not cost. The only cost would come from the time involved in updating her profile, if she did not maintain it herself.

But, all small businesses are not so socially oriented. I don’t see this working quite so well for a dentist or a metal fabricating company. I mean, you can’t really post about the great root canal you just gave, or the awesome filling you just did. You might be able to get away with some shots of tooth whitening, but, really, who wants to shop for a dentist on Facebook? A metal fabricating company might have the same experience. Your friends and family aren’t going to “share” your pics of guys welding in helmets, or the finished product. Friending clients on Facebook might come off as strange. It’s not a natural fit, by any means.

In the end, there are Web marketing solutions to fit every small business. Some will do well with social media, while others might need to concentrate more on their email campaigns, SEO, and some local search – that dentist will want to spend more time on local search than Facebook. It’s just a better fit. It just makes sense.