How to win during a down market?

•           2009 10% of all US ad dollars will go online

•           Internet is 20% of overall media consumption in the US

•           US advertisers invest only 7.5% of their budget online

Tremendous potential for marketplace growth. Ask yourself, what are your competitors doing? Are they decreasing their marketing dollars.

The key is to focus your marketing dollars on true and sound ROI campaigns.

ComScore reported that more than 11 million videos were viewed by U.S. residents in May 2008. More importantly, 52% of those viewers took some sort of action after watching.  From watching past episodes of Lipstick Jungle on Hulu.com, to viewing conference and keynote speakers, there’s something for everyone.
gWave has been highly recommending and consulting several clients in the B2C and B2B markets on how they can use video for their business. But, most importantly is how they can take advantage of video in a slowing market. For example, one of our clients holds quarterly ‘lunch and learns.’  They’ll invite 100 people, but have 40 RSVP’s and 30 people attend. What about the other 60 people who couldn’t make it? Well, video is a great way to reach these people. So now, they are video taping their lunch and learns and following up with clients who were unable to attend with the video.

So now you have video, how do you optimize it for the web?

1. Educate your marketing team and/or videographer on SEO basics. Choose keywords to use for your title, description and other tags.

2. Create a company YouTube.com account. For example post and or host your videos at YouTube.com/companyname

3. Add a video sitemap to your site. Here are some Google guidelines.

Post or comment on what your experience has been with video and promoting your business.

RSS is the new benchmark of the modern website. RSS tagged content reaches people in your business’s existing sphere of influence. These are the people and businesses that you’ve already inspired to subscribe to your feed. They are your fans and they want to keep tabs on you. A great RSS feed gives additional value to subscribers:

- access to whitepapers

- members only content

- discounts

- free videos

- free webinar access

- free consulting

These are all great ways to nurture enduring relationships with your existing fans. But what about the millions of people outside of your sphere of influence who haven’t discovered you yet?

That’s where a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign comes into play.

PPC broadens your sphere of influence on the web. PPC ushers in more “would-be” clients from outside your sphere of influence. This is why PPC is still necessary in an RSS crazed world. PPC campaigns are the modern Conquistadors of Internet marketing. They broaden your Internet marketing empire by drawing in new people (visitors) and places (online communities).

Once these publics are drawn into your realm it is RSS that acts as spokesperson for your brand and culture. An addictive RSS feed keeps you in front of your fans who might have otherwise jumped off your company bandwagon due to neglect.

A balance of inbound (RSS) and outbound (PPC) marketing is a most fruitful way to harvest prospects for the top of your conversion funnel.

Myth #1 – It all starts with a great web site.

A flashy splash page with gigantic lifestyle photos will not draw consumers into your site by itself. Your Company needs to have a strong brand identity with well defined services. Even the most attractive of websites won’t convert visitors into customers if you can’t describe your professional specialty and specify the core benefits your work provides for your clients.

Myth #2 – Do whatever it takes to build your email list.

There’s no question that a substantial opt-in mailing list is a valuable marketing asset, but the quality of names on your list is much more important than the quantity. Acquiring names through giveaways of other people’s material, trading lists with joint venture partners, or purchasing them from a vendor rarely provides qualified buyers truly interested in your services. You have worked hard to build a credible name for your company, why tarnish your reputation?

Myth #3 – More traffic translates to increased profits.

The only result that more traffic to your website guarantees you is increased bandwidth use by your web host. Before breaking the bank on excessive amounts of PPC and banner ads for an unproven site you should mercilessly critique it and invite existing customers to do the same. Consider it constructive criticism and take the time to fine tune your site before diving into a massive campaign.

Myth #4 – Killer copywriting is the secret to sales.

Your Internet marketing persona should reflect the same professionalism as the work you do with your clients. You should avoid gimmicky “limited time only” and “buy one get one free” catch phrases. Those appeals are best left to the late night infomercial salesmen. You are a professional who’s copy should inspire trust and brand loyalty.

Myth #5 – Just follow the magic formula and you will get rich.

There is no magical panacea to cure your internet marketing woes. The secret to landing clients is what it always has been. You need to build relationships and get people to know, like, and trust you. Building long-term, trusting relationships with prospective clients and referral sources will win you business on the web.

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The grand bazaars of the Near East, the Venetian exchange houses of the Rialto, even the swanky boutiques of Sunset Boulevard have become afterthoughts in the mind of the modern American and European consumer in the wake of the new online marketplace. Many of the large multinationals, and many smaller regional merchants, have shifted a considerable amount of their marketing efforts online. However, something has been lost in the process.

The beauty of the local merchant was that he had an intimate understanding of not only the product he was selling, but also the local people he was selling to. The same should apply to ecommerce. The savvy online marketer needs to have a dialogue with the customer. And to do this you need to communicate in the customer’s native language. Since the lion’s share of online content is in English, Americans enjoy the luxury of an Internet that is accessible and engaging. The same does not apply to our friends across the pond though. Europeans tend to surf sites in their own language, which are usually national versions of international brands like Google and Lycos.

It is more effective to have separate sites for different languages (english-mysite.com, german-keyword.com, french-keyword.com); the most effective method of reaching a European browser is having a local top-level domain name like .fr for France. According to Jupiter research, when comparing two sites having similar content, similar number of pages and targeting similar keywords, the separate language sites get four times more traffic than sites with the structure mysite.com/targeted_language. If you are attracting an international audience and/or pursuing one, keep this important element in mind. Get to know your target audience and communicate with them on THEIR level in their native language.

Do as the old street merchants did, get to know your customer, be invested in learning what makes them tick. Survey your web visitors, call them, email them. Be the friendly neighborhood mega-corporation next door.

On today’s show they interviewed Melani Gordon from gWave Consulting.

• Internet Trends - how to win with the online spending gap
• Social Media - Barry & Barry learn more about Twitter & Utterz
• Best Practices - drip email marketing

http://www.realestateradiousa.com/blog/interviews/melanigordonep125.mp3
Thanks Barry & Barry would love to come on again.

US Internet advertising will prove itself as a resilient channel for advertising in the coming years. In fact, it will grow despite the recession minded economy. The Yankee Group and International Advertising Bureau predict that in 2009, 10% of all US ad dollars will go online. The internet accounts for approximately 20% of overall media consumption in the US, but advertisers now invest only 7.5% of their budget online - and as a result there is tremendous potential for marketplace growth as interested advertisers bridge the gap. The Internet will eventually surpass all other major media in both scale and overall ad revenues. This Internet focused advertising structure is not as far off as one might think.

Online marketing practices and technology have changed just as the market forces that guide their development and necessity have.

- The traditional static banner ad is being replaced by multi panel rich media and video ads. These are the new 30 second ad films that, once upon a time, were at home in the world of broadcast television. They now inhabit both realms.

- The online marketing option can be the perfect fit for the behemoth corporation who desires a focused dialogue with its consumers, or the neighborhood artisan who desires a globally accessible gallery to display their work.

- Internet marketing is scalable like never before. Traditional media dictated when and where a company could advertise within a predetermined timetable. Now custom programs can be crafted by Internet marketing professionals to meet the needs of any client.

- Traditional media channels were hit or miss when it came to reaching a desired demographic. The Internet has evolved the traditional broadcast into the narrowcast. Companies can target ever more niche groups and determine their campaign’s effectiveness through the use of web analytics.

The advertising world is, without a doubt, going through a paradigm shift. The Old Guard of the advertising world is being forced to adapt to a new way of doing business. Those who adapt and stay ahead of the curve stand to make a name for themselves as the new Carnegies and Rockefellers of the online marketing age. The assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that once held sway are now being challenged by the new kid on the block, online marketing.

A clear divide between the baby boomer journalist and the 30 something embracing the blogosphere era. Please weigh in on this HOT topic.

Transparency people. Wake up.

Furthermore, a recent poll shows that 19% of people ages 18-34 are regular newspaper readers. The average age of the newspaper reader is 55 and rising. Is Buzz feeling threatened here? Even so, he doesn’t need to be so blatantly and flat out rude.

Your thoughts?