Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category:
Written on June 29th, 2010 by mmitchellone shout
Living in a small town in Southwest Colorado, I primarily work with small to mid-size companies. It is a pleasure working with owners, however, most small business owners do not have very many resources and therefore have to “do it all”. To that end, when I do a web site project for a company, I also become an integral part of their marketing department. Many times I assume the role of IT department, marketing department, copywriter and graphic designer. Through this process, I also try to help owners understand the importance of branding.
When creating a web site or an Internet marketing campaign, one of the most important questions I ask the client is “Who are you trying to reach and what emotional connection are you trying to make?” This starts a larger discussion on branding and positioning.
A lot of small business owners just put an ad together or a web site hoping that the mere presence of advertising will drive business their direction. However, if they have never thought about who they are trying to attract or their overall strategy, they may use the wrong message, photos, and copy that is not attracting their key market. In addition, their web site, brochure, and advertising may be sending different, conflicting messages. For example, they may create a beautiful professional ad but when the potential customer goes to the web site, they have old graphics, miles of copy and confusing navigation. This will cause the customer to jump off the site and not call or Email.
When asking if a company has ever tried marketing in a specific channel, many owners will say “we tried it and it doesn’t work”. However, was the marketing channel the problem (i.e. magazine, PPC ad, online advertiser) or was it the ad itself?
Before starting a web project or any other marketing project, it is extremely important that your marketing team truly understands who you are targeting and what colors, fonts, words and copy will attract that type of person. People buy because of emotions to solve a need, save them money or save them time. If your key audience is not quickly understanding how your product or service will help them, then they will move on. You are not trying to sell the entire world…you are simply trying to connect with potential customers who “match” the value you are offering.
Futhermore, it takes at least 7 “touches” for a person to even recognize that they saw your ad or article. Therefore, marketing should be a comprehensive strategy, not one that just throws mud on the wall to see what sticks.
Finally, all marketing should have a specific lead channel. My next article will talk about the evolution of online brochure web sites to lead generation web sites.
Marcy Mitchell, owner of MTECH Internet Marketing, has been helping small to medium sized business owners develop comprehensive marketing strategies and effective web sites for the past 14 years. For a complimentary marketing review, contact her or call 970-731-6325.
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Written on June 3rd, 2010 by mmitchellone shout
One of my clients, Growing Spaces, has recently been named “One of the Top Colorado Companies to Watch”. They are currently featured in Cobizmag.org. Here is a snippet of the article:
GROWING SPACES LLC
www.growingspaces.com/community
SNAPSHOT: Based in Pagosa Springs, Growing Spaces produces energy-efficient greenhouses using a passive solar geodesic design for year-round growing.
LEADERSHIP: Owner Michael Parsons started Growing Spaces out of a garage in 1989.
WORK FORCE: The company employed 10 full-time equivalent employees in 2009 and expects to add one or two employees in 2010.
CUSTOMERS: The company has supplied its Growing Domes to more than 1,200 clients in 48 states and 11 countries. Best-known customers include Toyota Motor Co., Shumei Natural Gardens at Rodale Institute and Naropa University.
PIVOTAL MOMENTS: The company cites the “phenomenon of Y2K” as an impetus for people deciding to become more self-sufficient, and the company went from producing 14 Growing Domes a year, to 75. The company launched its website in 1994, putting it well ahead of competitors in e-commerce.
MARKETING STRATEGY: The company’s most successful campaign is its “Tour of Domes” each April in Pagosa Springs when six Growing Dome owners open their domes to the public, displaying fresh herbs, flowers and vegetables when outside it is still snowy. People come from as far as Santa Fe., N.M., and Colorado Springs for the tour.
Growing Spaces has been working with MTECH in developing a robust social media presence with their new interactive blog (http://www.growingspaces.com/community), facebook page and YouTube channel. They are currently re-designing their web site and expanding their marketing initiatives.
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Written on April 28th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Most small business owners may not think about their “target market” or “market position” as often as larger companies. However, even if you think you have little to no competition, you may not be aware how important positioning is to increase your revenue stream.
Here is a great article from Marketing Tools:CRM Newsletter that makes some great points:
Marketing Positioning — It’s The Customer’s View That Counts
Where do we fit in our competitive marketplace? That’s a question often posed when new hires are brought into a company and possibly the most interesting and important question for marketing and sales organizations to get right. The question, “Given all of the players in our space, what is our positioning?,” should be answered conclusively.
While marketers often talk about the science of marketing, many people refer to the quantitative aspects of marketing as the science, or hard-marketing. While it’s true there is a great deal of mathematics and analytics in marketing, it’s also true that there is a science to developing an effective positioning, and this methodology can be summarized as follows:
a. Identify your target market;
b. Define your company (or product, brand, etc.) in the mind of the target customer;
c. Develop an understanding of your company’s (or product, brand, etc.) distinctive place in the customer’s mind.
Let’s look at each of these steps individually.
First, identify the target market. This is not always as easy as it sounds. By segmenting the market carefully, and understanding your company’s value proposition relative to each segment, it will become clear which segments are best suited to your solutions, and which ones should be targeted first. The more selective, or granular the segmentation, the better you will understand your very specific value proposition, and this will lead to a much clearer picture of your competitive landscape.
Second, think about your company or solution as if you were one of the target customers. What is your current brand perception, your view of the key values, strengths, and weaknesses, as perceived by this target market? For small, or emerging companies, the perception may be complete lack of awareness.
Lastly, and most importantly, build an honest and complete view of how the customer thinks of your company or solution in terms of a very distinct place in the competitive landscape — a place that is different from all of the other competitors.
Of course, in an ideal world, your customers’ views will match precisely how you want them to see you. If this is the case, then your positioning statements and marketing reflect this existing view. In most cases, however, marketers are challenged with creating a more complete understanding of their company’s value to a target market, in terms of the distinctive place in the market that they believe the company should occupy.
Getting to the most appropriate positioning involves two equally important elements of success. To begin with, your solution must actually do the things you say it does, in order to occupy that distinctive space. That is, it must deliver on that promise. If the actual product/solution is really the same as that of your competitors’, and all you have is marketing statements, that strategy will soon be discovered by the market and a short-lived celebration of success will result.
Next, once you have established that your solution actually works, is distinctive in the specific ways we’ve identified, and solves a set of particular problems for your target customers better than your competitors, you can then start to tell the market about this uniquely beneficial approach.
The marketing must consistently focus on these distinctive benefits, highlighting how your solution is most particularly suited to solve the problem for the target customer in a manner that is superior to your competition.
Rather than diluting your marketing positioning by identifying all of the aspects of your solution, it is essential to position the solution in a very focused way — reinforcing at every possible opportunity that unique and distinctive place in the market that your company occupies, and intends to own.
For marketers, positioning is not about a feature-function battle against competitors; it’s about building a common understanding between the market and the company, relative to the share of the market that it serves best.
We know we have done a good job of positioning our company/product when our prospects and customers know exactly where we fit into the competitive market landscape, and we agree!
Gavin Finn is president and CEO of Kaon. He is an experienced operating executive with more than 20 years of building value in profitable, growth-oriented organizations. Gavin joined Kaon in early 2005 and is responsible for corporate and product strategy, customer satisfaction, corporate growth, and financial performance. Reach him here.
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Written on March 31st, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Printed on Cobizmag.com By Esty Atlas
True Story: It was a Friday morning at a Washington, DC subway stop. A typical morning rush hour, there was a man playing an instrument for tips. But this time, something was quite different from the usual street busker. That’s because this musician was part of an experiment being conducted by The Washington Post.
The busker was playing his violin for about an hour in the subway. The test was to determine if people passing by would appreciate his music. They didn’t. The Washington Post purposely placed a world renown violinist into a remote location to study people’s responses.
Herein lies a wonderful lesson for marketing products. Normally, this musician, better known as the famous violinist Joshua Bell, would command, at minimum, $100 per ticket at one of his typical stage performances. But in an a-typical environment (an underground subway station), the public reaction was less than the customary standing ovation he normally received.
Before I tell you the exact response, take a guess. What do you think his recognition factor was: 5 percent, 10 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent?
Despite the fact that he was playing Bach’s legendary “Chaconne” to perfection on his $3 millon Stradivarius violin, of the 1,097 people that passed by that hour, only ONE person recognized who Bell really was. Yep; one person. That one person left a $20 tip.
As for the other 1,096 people who heard him, but thought little of the talent they were passing, he collected $32.17 in tips for a total of a whopping $52.17 earned in an hour’s worth of work. Suffice it to say, substantially less than his normal compensation for a stage performance.
This is the key point. Just because you have a product or service that you believe is wonderful, getting other people to notice is no slam dunk if it’s not put into the right context.
The editors and researchers at The Washington Post were genuinely surprised that the famous violinist wasn’t recognized more. Reporter Gene Weingarten came to the conclusion that basically people are too busy during rush hour to notice true talent. He also concluded that in a concert setting, people are in the right frame of mind and are expecting brilliance. In an unexpected environment, however, people took little notice.
So, how does this experiment translate to a marketing or PR blunder? Simply put, it’s a case of Right Product – Wrong Place.
What does it means for your business?
If you are running ads in the wrong publication, sending out mass direct mail to zip codes rather than to specific people, you are playing the numbers game. It doesn’t work anymore. Consumers tend to screen out anything that looks unfamiliar as they did to the violinist in the subway. They toss unsolicited mail, throw spam into the trash, guard their email addresses with their first born, fast-forward through the commercials of their favorite TV programs, and rely on caller ID to see who it is.
Your challenge in the 21st century of marketing requires strategic new tactics to get recognized. It takes a combination of common sense and creativity to be received positively.
Your Strategy Should Be: Do your homework. Create the right environment for your product or service. Make sure it’s a good fit. If you’re not sure, spend a few bucks to do some market research. Many factors affect marketing, but placing the right product in the wrong places is unlikely to produce the desired results.
Esty Atlas is the public relations director for Hughes & Stuart Marketing located in Greenwood Village. She is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer, creative producer and coauthor of “Roadrunner Marketing: Strategic Secrets You Wish You Knew.“ http://www.hughesstuart.com.
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Written on March 4th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Feeling bad about your search engine optimization ranking? Don’t worry…Google just released a SEO report card on their own site and it shows they have a lot of areas to improve.
View the Report Here
This extensive report shows all the things you need to consider when doing SEO on a website.
Recently, I just got a new client who has been paying thousands every year on SEO from a “large firm”. What amazed me was that this large firm didn’t even do the small basics, such as having unique title tags and description tags on every page nor did they have any “alt” image tags, yet they were charging them every year.
If your web site firm or SEO firm is not spending time explaining what they are doing and equipping you along the way, then you may need to take a second look. Also, make sure your web firm and/or Internet marketing firm gives you a Google analytics login so that you can check results yourself. So many times firms keep charging you without providing continual value.
I have clients that I have equipped along the way so they no longer need my monthly services. It doesn’t bother me since I can proudly say that their web sites continue to give them business long after I am done. They feel great about the “value” I provided and in turn, recommend me to other clients.They also use me still upon occasion when they truly need my expertise.
If marketing firms want to continue to survive over the next decade, they need to learn the importance of empowerment. Otherwise, their reputations will suffer and they will go by the wayside. Marketing firms need to explain how all of these new social media and Internet tools will help companies bottom line as well as listen to the needs of the company or business. If a firm has an owner or staff member who can tweet, blog and post, it is better for them to do it in-house.
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Written on February 23rd, 2010 by mmitchell2 shouts
By Marcy Mitchell, Owner of MTECH
Our company is located just 30 minutes from Wolf Creek Ski area, which is known for having the “most snow in Colorado”. However, the recent storm over the weekend gave a new meaning to “deep powder skiing”. I have never skiied in knee deep powder before. What an experience! As my thighs burned and my face planted in the snow multiple times, I felt like a brand new skier. Getting up out of that deep snow provided another challenge. Thanks to my children, I got back on my feet!
This “new way of skiing” requires different skills and techniques that I am not as familiar. To truly learn how to slice through the powder successfully, it also requires new equipment. This experience made me realize how many business owners feel regarding the rapid-fire changes in marketing.
Traditional marketing relies on direct mail, print advertising, trade shows, Email marketing and other “interruption-style” techniques. It is no secret that these types of marketing are becoming less effective and an increasing amount of businesses are shifting to attraction media channels, such as social media, Internet marketing and SEO. This trend is not just about changing media channels…it is also about a “change in thinking”. Marketers have to think more like publishers and socializers and less like advertisers. Therefore, effective content, tracking and time management of staff becomes critical. Businesses may spend less money on these new tools, but they also have to be aware of the time spent and how that affects their budget.
MTECH specializes in helping small business owners traverse the digital divide and take advantage of these new trends. If you would like to discuss how we can help your company, please contact us at 970-731-6325.
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Written on February 17th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
I have recently had a number of conversations with small business owners on the changing dynamics of the Internet, SEO, PR and Marketing. One owner just expressed frustration that many “consultants” he had spoken with and paid seemed to have fallen behind. Instead of continuing to inform clients of new marketing trends, these firms just continue to collect annual funds and market the same as they did 3 years ago. MTECH Business Development has continually worked on keeping up with trends and proactively helped its clients understand and apply these trends for a better ROI.
Enjoy a recent article from HubSpot on the same issue:
The marketing services industry is broken.
There are of thousands of marketing firms trying to position their firm as unique and better, but the results they produce for clients are rarely better or unique.
Companies are lost trying to figure out whether to start with a Web designer, SEO company, PR firm or branding expert. These different flavors of firms are competing for the same shrinking budget dollars, instead of cooperating to ensure client success.
During a time when the Internet and software have made it easier and easier for marketing to impact sales and revenue growth, agencies are failing to predict and deliver a measurable ROI.
Even now as the traditional ways of marketing and advertising are dying a rapid death, marketing and ad agencies are still trying to adapt the old methods, terminology and approaches to a much more promising and more natural inbound marketing world; a world where buyers naturally find sellers and sellers simply make it easier for buyers to find them and buy from them.
It’s time for a rebirth of this industry. There will be firms that lead us in this renaissance. There will be agencies who lead us in this revolution. We believe that these will be the truths they hold self-evident:
1. Digital natives are empowered. An agency can learn the “digital world,” but chances are they’ve just adapted their old offerings to the web. If your agency hasn’t hired smart, young people and paired them with open minded senior “people” people, you’re not going to really transform your agency as fast as the market is.
2. New approaches are practiced before preached. If your agency suffers from the cobbler’s children’s shoes scenario (where your website hasn’t been updated in 3 years, you don’t have an active blog and your Twitter account has 3 updates), drop everything.
3. Continuous learning and experimentation is required.
Read Full Article Here
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Written on February 12th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
This week I was honored to speak at the San Luis Valley Tourism Conference in Alamosa, Colorado. The theme of the conference was agri-tourism. Not only was I able to connect with many small business owners and non-profits in the San Luis Valley, but I also learned how important agritourism is to the Colorado tourism industry.
According to a 2006 economic report by the Colorado State University Extension Department, the tourism industry is a major economic driver for rural communities across the United States. In Colorado, 23 counties outside of Denver had more than 1000 jobs in tourism in 2005 and in 7 non-metro counties, 40% of all jobs were in travel and tourism.
Those statistics are not that surprising living in Pagosa Springs. What did surprise me, however, was that nearly 1/5 of travelers surveyed participated in agritourism activities more than 3 times per year. 56% of these frequent agritourism visitors were Colorado residents.
According to the report, an estimated 13.2 million visitors engaged in some agritourism in 2006, spending approximately 1.26 Billion. Of these:
- Agritourism was the primary trip focus for 4.1 million visitors who reported spending $807 million including 1.9 in-state visitors and 2.2 million out-of-state visitors.
- Unplanned agritourism added 6.7 million visitors who spent $189 million during their trips including 5.4 million in-state visitors and 1.3 million out-of-state visitors.
The greatest participation in agritourism activities occurred in Northern Colorado, the Southwest and the South Central areas of the state.
For more information on this blossoming Colorado industry, please contact us at 970-731-6325.
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Written on January 27th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Since so many of my clients are in Colorado, I thought it prudent that they become aware of potential new legislation that is currently being debated that may impact their bottom line. The following article was published on Coloradobizmag.com…
Ending tax incentives will hurt business
CACI survey reveals exactly how
By Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry
Elimination or suspension of tax exemptions, exclusions and credits proposed by Gov. Bill Ritter will harm businesses across the state and hamper job growth and economic recovery, according to a survey of companies by the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry (CACI).
In December, CACI conducted a survey of businesses on the potential elimination or suspension of 13 tax provisions targeted by Ritter to raise $131.8 million to help balance the state’s budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. On Friday, bills targeting these tax provisions were introduced in the Colorado House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Committee will hear the bills at 8 a.m. today in House Committee Room 109 as the legislative leadership fast-tracks the bills to send them to Governor Ritter for his signature.
Ritter said last week he had moved up the effective date of seven of the bills to March 1 to capture $18 million in new tax revenue before the current fiscal year (2009-1010) ends on June 30. View Full Article.
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Written on December 21st, 2009 by mmitchellone shout
Published in the December 21st Research Brief from the Center for Media Research
A new comScore survey reported that, for holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 41 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season. $19.9 billion has been spent online, marking a 3% increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw above average online spending growth of 4% versus year ago, as two individual days surpassed $800 million in spending, led by Thursday, Dec. 10, with $852 million.
ComScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni, anticipates that “… Monday, December 14, otherwise known as Green Monday, is likely to produce our heaviest online spending total for the season and represents our best opportunity to finally surpass that elusive $900 million spending threshold… “
Since comScore began tracking e-commerce spending in 2001, it has witnessed thirteen individual spending days eclipse $800 million, each of which has occurred during the past three holiday seasons. The heaviest online spending day on record was Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2008 with $887 million, which squeaked by Monday, Nov. 30, 2009 (Cyber Monday) by a mere rounding error. Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009 was on a par with those totals with $886 million in spending. Of the top ten spending days on record, four have occurred in 2009, four in 2008, and two in 2007.
For additional information about the survey and comScore, please visit here.
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