Category Archives: Online Strategy

Top 6 Online Marketing Tactics

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We have established in earlier posts that the new marketing environment tends to be a mix of traditional, non-traditional and online tactics centered around the concept that all will drive eyeballs to your online presence. It is this online presence that is the foundation of your marketing strategy and where potential customers garner the information on the products or services that you provide.

Certainly there are many tactics that can be employed from each format of advertising and over the next few posts I will share with you what I believe are the most effective. Keep in mind that I am a proponent of effective, efficient and measurable marketing spends – add this to the experience factor (grey hairs) and you formulate what could be considered a “tried and true” opinion. Still the caveat that I will place on the next few posts is that all of this depends directly on the client and the strategy/plan employed. The highlighted tactics are a great starting point once you have your marketing strategy in place.

Top 6 Online Marketing Tactics

1. Optimize your Website

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be done through a variety of methods including keyword targeting that increase your search rankings. Complete Web Sources of Florida reports that “of the people that use Google 79% go to the first five listings on page one of search results, 28% will go up to three pages and less than 10% will look at up to 5 pages”. Consequently you can see the importance of a high ranking and it is imperative to the success of your website and ultimately your business.

2. Keep your Website Current

Ensure that your site is dynamic and timely by consistently updating  it with news of your products, service or people. Search engines like new content and you need to employ the many ways to keep your website fresh.

3.  Utilize Online Marketing Channels

Identify which channels your target market is using and dive into those options. Whether it is Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or services like Squidoo or a combination of them all – simply ensure that you participate in these social platforms as it will undoubtedly expand your reach.

4. Blog and Blog Lots

Blogging demonstrates your passion for your industry and by blogging in a consistent manner you will drive more eyeballs to your site.  Blogging  takes  commitment  but those that blog consistently will reap the rewards. I found this 3 minute video on YouTube and it speaks to the importance of blogging and gives some useful tips as well – enjoy…

5. Pay-per-click Advertising

This form of online advertising allows companies to control where their adverts are displayed, when they are shown, and the budget they are willing to spend.  It is highly cost-effective if done properly and search engine services such as Google, Bing or Yahoo provide listings on a per-bid basis. Please note that this is in addition to their respective ‘natural’ search results (which are still powered by a combination of keywords found on your site). Pay-per-click ads require experimentation and analysis and over time any website can discover the keywords that work best for them.

6. Create Videos for your Website

Videos are becoming more important as people tend to click on links with videos more than those without –  even if the video link is ranked lower. Videos are a great way to show your passion and personality along with your products and/or service. It also gives you another marketing channel (your very own YouTube channel) which expands the reach of your online presence.

Should a company move forth and employ these six tactics then they would be well on their way to increasing traffic to their website. Certainly there are many more tactics available that feed people back to your site such as online contesting, newsletters and online published articles but the objective here is to find out what works best for you and your company. Experiment and measure your online tactics in order to make decisions that will eventually maximize your online presence.

How does one get the Boomers to Blog?

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Boomers-Blogging

Baby boomer (definition):

  • a baby boomer is known to be someone born during the demographic post World War II  birth boom between 1946 and 1964, including 1964.

Let it be known that I am a “young” baby boomer and please note that I will ALWAYS be considered a “young” baby boomer. And I like to consider myself as someone that fully embraces the new media platforms available to us including blogging, Twitter and XBOX 360 (Red Dead Revolver rocks!) I am also fortunate to work with some younger people who are pushing for us Boomers within the company to blog more.

"Baby Boomer Graph"

United States birth rate (births per 1000 population). The blue segment is the postwar baby boom

What can a Baby Boomer Teach us?

Apparently these same young people believe that us folks with the “grey hairs” have something to contribute. They are probably right but the blogging world is new to us. Still we need to dive in and participate in this new social setting. I have and I need to say that I actually enjoy it. Blogging is an avenue for me to tell the stories and examples that I often use when dealing with clients in a private or group session. Experience is indeed a wonderful thing and blogging has provided me with a virtual soapbox to tell those stories and give you my perspective on the best ways to approach different situations. Indeed the other “grey hairs” have lots to share but how do we get them to particpate in a consistent manner?

Help the Boomer help the Boomers.

I’m looking for some input from the readers – young and old. Please comment about ways of convincing the boomers that their blogs are welcomed and appreciated. Is it free beer? Perhaps it is a DVD prize of old TV shows based on ‘x’ number of posts? What baby boomer could turn down the full season set of Get Smart or the original Star Trek series? How about the original Battlestar Galactica with Lorne Greene? This has got to make them take notice.

Please post some ideas below in the comments or on twitter – we need to get the boomers to blog. Your contributions will ensure the experience will not be lost before Alzheimer disease sets in.