Online Marketing Manager Magazine March/April 2014 by Pam Ivey

onlinemarketing manager Magazine

INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESS IN

JOINT VENTURES

By Milana Leshinshy

THE INS & OUTS OF A PRODUCT

LAUNCH

By Dawn Goldberg

smarter

keyword research

THE POWER OF THE

PRINTED WORD By Carolyn Lewis

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 MARCH/APRIL 2014

KEYS TO EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT By Pam Ivey

what do you know about

bitcoin? INTERVIEW WITH

Online Marketing and Social Media

Powerhouse

LISA LARTER TIPS TO SAVE TIME & MONEY WITH ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES: Tips and Resources for the Busy Entrepreneur

By Leigh Fowler

onlinemarketing manager Magazine

Volume 2, Issue 2 March/April 2014

CONTENTS

4 Digital Currency For the New Age By Pam Ivey

5 Digital Addiction So Many I Wants, Too Few Fingers! Gadgets To Make You Drool

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 ISBN: 978-0-9812585-1-5

6 How Does Colour Affect Conversions? By Pam Ivey

7 3 Keys to Social Media Marketing PUBLISHING EDITOR Pam Ivey pamivey@ommmagazine.com

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kate Smith kate@ommmagazine.com

Effectiveness By Linda Lopeke

9 9 Ways to Build Your Email List That Work By Pam Ivey

10 Content Marketing In 2014 – The #1 Content Strategy You’re Not Doing Right Now By JR John

12 Product Launch Success Tips By Pam Ivey

ART DIRECTOR Mary Greenlees art@coloursomethingcreative.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Pam Aungst, Leigh Fowler, Dawn Goldberg, JR John, Pam Ivey, Tiffany Johnson, Linda Lopeke, Milana Leshnisky, Carolyn Lewis, Miriam Slozberg, Kate Smith, Stephanie Watson, Angela Wills

13 Five Ingredients of Success in Joint Ventures By Milana Leshinsky

15 Important Principles for Successful Viral Marketing By Pam Ivey

16 The Power of The Printed Word By Carolyn Lewis

18 Four Critical Reasons for Business Owners to Have a Social Media Presence By Miriam Slozberg

19 Smarter Keyword Research ADVERTISING SALES advertising@ommmagazine.com Online Marketing Manager Magazine is published 6 times per year in digital format by the International Association of Online Marketing Managers.

HOW TO REACH US Letters to the Online Marketing Manager Magazine can be emailed to editor@ommmagazine.com, or mailed to Online Marketing Manager Magazine, 24 Kelley Crescent, Wasaga Beach, ON L9Z 1J3 Canada

Follow OMM Magazine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/onlinemarketingmanagermagazine

By Pam Ivey

20 Blogging 101: Or Does Anyone Really Read Blogs?

By Stephanie Watson

22 Optimize Your Website for Performance By Pam Ivey

INTERVIEW WITH

LISA LARTER

ONLINE MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA POWERHOUSE BY KATE SMITH

29 Social Mobile Explosion

By Pam Ivey

30 The Ins and Outs of a Product Launch

By Dawn Goldberg

32 10 Tips to Save Time & Money with Online

BY PAM IVEY

By Leigh Fowler

Without Working Harder

By Pam Ivey

39 7 Success Tips for Mobile Marketers

By Angela Wills

44 How to Improve Your Digital Marketing Results

By Pam Aungst

How to Not Care

Updates You Need to Know About What You Do... 42 Earn Five Times More For Your Services

38 Google Algorithm Changes are Inevitable:

Google Analytics

Marketing: Strategies, Tools & Resources for the Busy Entrepreneur!

34 7 Great Internet Marketing Tips for 2014

By Pam Ivey

45 AIDAS Marketing Model 101

By Pam Ivey

46 Online Marketing Manager or Online Business Manager – What the Heck is the Difference?

By Pam Ivey

41 3 Keys to Effective Project Management

50 Upcoming Events

By Pam Ivey

By Tiffany Johnson

EDITOR’S NOTE

ow, how fast time flies! Here we are in Spring already and another issue of Online Marketing Magazine is hot off the press, jam-packed with incredible content laid out by more amazing online marketing experts. I’m also proud to say the inaugural launch of the new Online Marketing Manager Certification Program has been going really well. Our students are totally excited about all they’re learning and I have to say, they are an immense pleasure to work with! On that note, if you are a 6+-figure business owner who is interested in helping “intern” our students as they prepare for their final exams in April, we are carrying out case studies where you will receive a “done-for-you” marketing campaign for a single product or program, plus a free ad in the magazine in return for four hours of your time. If you are interested, please email Kate at kate@ommcertification.com as soon as possible for more details and to get on the schedule. As I said, this issue is jam-packed! Have you heard of bitcoins? This is an emerging Internet currency which started in the online trading market but has potential applications across any Internet-based business, as well as offline. Definitely something to look into. One of my professional crushes, Milana Leshinsky gives us tips on how to create successful joint ventures, and is very timely as this is an important part of online marketing that should be part of your list-building arsenal.

Carolyn Lewis of Nomad CEO Publishing pens a great article on how publishing a book can open new doors of opportunity. Tiffany Johnson takes a look at the line that divides what an Online Business Manager does versus an Online Marketing Manager, and JR John provides Content Marketing In 2014 – The #1 Content Strategy You’re Not Doing Right. And those are just some of the awesome articles we’ve got in this edition. So sit back, grab your coffee or tea (or wine!) and get up to date on all you need to know to keep your business humming with online marketing! To your online marketing success! Cheers,

Pam Ivey, Cert SBM,CPREA,CRESS,CMP Founder, International Association of Online Marketing Managers

ON-TREND

DIGITAL CURRENCY 4 THE NEW AGE

WHAT IS bitcoin?

itcoin is a type of currency that is created based on the Internet world’s market. It’s actually derived in a way that is sort of like our former gold standard, but instead uses bytes. Miners use software to mine for bitcoins. Each time the software and your computer locates and deciphers the 64-byte string, you “win” a certain number of bitcoins. The amount changes based on the current worth of bitcoins. The technology used is called Bitcoin while the actual currency is referred to as bitcoin in lower case. Due to the fact that bitcoins are like gold, there is a finite amount of bitcoins available which is only 21,000,000. Due to the finite supply of bitcoins, the value of each goes up as time goes on. You can mine for, buy, sell and trade bitcoins on the market. As miners started, they started trading them on the open market for the US Dollar as well as the Euro. Now, you can even use bitcoins to purchase products at various locations around the Internet. It’s a pretty complicated concept but as more people become aware of bitcoins there is more interest in using them. As long as there is value in them that people see as real, the value will continue to grow. Some people estimate that crypto-currencies will really take off and become not just part of our online trading, but part of the global economy on a larger scale. It does seem to be taking off because you can use bitcoins at many places. Here is a partial list, as it’s growing all the time.

Overstock – Home Goods and More Virgin Galactic – Travel BitcoinShop.US – Huge Marketplace NameCheap.com – Domains, Hosting, and More Betcas.com – Casino and Sports Betting USHobby.com – Arts & Crafts BitRoad.co.uk – A Marketplace

PrivateInternetAccess.com IncreaseMyT.com

BY PAM IVEY Internet Service Provider

Supplements for Men

This list is very partial and is growing every single day. Scan the marketplaces and you’ll be surprised at how many places (companies and individuals) are now accepting bitcoins as currency. The process of accepting and using bitcoins is rather straightforward even though the concept of the bitcoin itself is a little overwhelming (and amazing). Here are the steps:

Create a Bitcoin Wallet

You can do this in a couple of ways. You can use www.blockchain.info/wallet/new and just simply create one. Pay attention to all the rules and regulations because it’s not the same as opening a bank account and you might lose all your bitcoins if you don’t pay attention and write down your password, as there is no recovery system. Alternatively, you can create a wallet by going to www.bitcoin.org, and while it takes longer, is a safer and more secure method to do so.

Get Your Bitcoin Address

Using your bitcoin wallet you’ll get bitcoin addresses which are 34 to 36 characters long, always starting with a 1. This is the address you’ll use to receive payments and you can have more than one, and are encouraged to have more than one in order to protect yourself.

Buy Bitcoins When you set up your bitcoin wallet and address, you can also choose to purchase bitcoins using cash. The cost of bitcoins as mentioned above varies right now as of January 31, 2014 the exchange for 1 BTC is 803.40 cents. You can check the current exchange rate here. It doesn’t just work on the Internet. The use of bitcoins are taking off in many cities, states and countries. There are even attorneys who are using bitcoins as an acceptable method of client payment and the US Department of Justice recognizes it as a legal means of trade. If you’re not using bitcoins right now, maybe you should reconsider. But, do consider very carefully. It is a very volatile market.

PAM IVEY

is a tireless champion of the online business industry and considered a Thought Leader in Online Marketing and Outsourcing. Known for her warm and engaging manner and wide-ranging, comprehensive skills and experience, she has inspired countless entrepreneurs and other professionals to achieve greater heights in their businesses. Always at the ready to help, she taps into the Think Big Mindset by offering training programs for ‘newbie’ to seasoned VAs, online marketing professionals, freelancers from all industries, as well as online solopreneurs and entrepreneurs. Her flagship program, Online Marketing Manager Certification began in February to rave reviews and this spring, she’ll be launching the new International Association of Online Marketing Managers. Learn more at www.OMMCertification.com. 4 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

TECH

DIGITAL ADDICTION GADGETS TO MAKE YOU DROOL

SO MANY I WANTS, TOO FEW FINGERS!

PowerAll Portable Power Bank & Car Jump Starter ($98.88)

Polaroid Z2300 Digital Instant Print Camera ($179)

Hi-Koala Huggable Portable Speaker ($39.99)

This external battery pack not only has dual USB ports for charging your smartphones and tablets, but it comes with jumper cables… so you can jump start your car if need be. Did we mention it has a 3-function LED flashlight too?

INSTANT GRATIFICATION There’s something magical about instant photos - we’re not talking about pictures that you snap on your phone or your digital camera where the image appears on a pixellated screen. We mean the old instant-photo camera from Polaroid. With a click, and a snap, and a whirr, and a little bit of patience that flies against the whole “instant” adjective, you’d get your photo.

CUDDLES FOR YOUR EARS You can hug this Koala stuffed animal, and it will hug your iPod or other mp3playing device. In turn, the music coming out of the portable speakers inside the Koala’s paws will hug your ears. It’s the circle of musical hugs! And the best part about playing musical hugs is nobody ends up sitting on the floor. Unless you started out there.

www.thinkgeek.com

Touch GENiE ($165)

Karotz ($103.99)

Sound Lounge

Transform your monitor or television into a touchscreen and enjoy the freedom and benefits to interact with your work and media the same way you use your smartphones and tablets.

WiFi, RFID, USB voice-activated, 9.6” tall bunny. Speaks, sees, listens, obeys, and wiggles his ears. Your bunny can inform you of what’s shaking on your social networks, publish your status updates, play your favorite music, and even serve as a check-in point that emails you a photo of your child when they arrive home from school.

Ottoman with built-in speakers. On the surface it’s a plush, sturdy ottoman with a sonic twist. The integrated subwoofer delivers rich low-frequency sound while two additional speakers on either side project your music into the room. It streams music from your smartphone or tablet wirelessly while you relax. Available soon from ION Audio.

www.amazon.com

About $165 for a 17” touchscreen from www.soladapt.com

www.thinkgeek.com ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 5

CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

HOW DOES

COLOUR AFFECT CONVERSIONS?

BY PAM IVEY

he human mind is a very complex creation and how and why we do things and make the choices we make has been a long studied phenomenon usually left to sociologists and psychologists. But, if you’re serious about marketing you need to consider studying the human mind in order to increase conversions. Everything you do from the URL, to the words on your landing pages, to the colours make a huge difference on conversation rates due to something that seems completely illogical, and that’s emotions. Emotions play an important part in how someone perceives your website and your offer, and the things that trigger those emotions are the perceived benefits of your offer, which is determined by the words you use, the types of fonts you use, and the colours on the page. You don’t have to go back to college though, let’s take a look at how colours affect conversions. It’s about more than what looks good to you.

COLOUR AFFECTS READABILITY We’ve all gone to a website that once we clicked through we wished we had not visited because we felt like our retinas were burned out. It’s imperative that a good web designer

learns about colour theory and how it affects not only emotions but readability for most of the population. It’s important to understand how the colour wheel works, and what colours go together, and which do not. Colour combinations used will affect readability greatly. It’s important to understand how to use contrast appropriately. If it’s too severe it will literally hurt your readers, if the contrast isn’t sharp enough they won’t be able to see clearly. It’s important to choose the right combination of background and foreground colours so that people can read your site without pain and easily. The truth is, you don’t really want your readers to think about the colours on your site directly. If they go to your site and think “wow that’s orange” you probably went too far.

COLOUR ELICITS EMOTIONAL REACTIONS Based on a variety of factors such as culture, learned perceptions, and community influence different colours bring forth diverse emotions and reactions. Below is a colour chart that gives some examples of how colour effects emotions in North America.

COLOUR EMOTIONS Black

Sophistication, power, mystery, evil, death, formal

Gray

Stability, security, character, authority, maturity

Purple

Luxury, dignity, wisdom, spiritual, passion, magic

Yellow

Joy, friendly, warmth, caution, cowardice, jealousy

White

Pure, fresh, hope, clean, simple

Pink

Beauty, love, sensitive, romantic, sophistication

Red

Romance, lust, excitement, urgency, energetic

Blue

Peace, stability, calm, sincere, integrity, masculinity

Green

Environment, money, life, fresh, relaxing, tasteful, envy Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology

Colours mean something different to people depending on their culture. It’s important to take the time to study what your audience feels when they view particular colours. For instance in Japan white symbolizes death. It’s important to choose a consistent theme for all your online

real-estate that will be a mark of professionalism and elicit familiarity and trust of your readers. As you know, and have been told numerous times and in many ways, people like to buy from those they know, like and trust. Colour used properly and thoughtfully can further that goal and increase conversions.

6 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

SOCIAL MEDIA

3 KEYS

to SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING

EFFECTIVENESS

BY LINDA M. LOPEKE

ocial media can be one of the most productive tools in your marketing arsenal or one of the more frustrating experiences you’ll have online.

01 LISTENING –

The good news? As a business owner or online entrepreneur, you get to make the planning decisions that influence the effectiveness of your social media marketing.

02 TALKING – I want to stimulate two-way discussions

03 ENERGIZING – I want to create opportunities for

04 SUPPORTING – I want to make it possible for my

05 EMBRACING – I want to develop better products

Here are 3 keys to ensuring your social media investment is working for you and your business.

01 Know your why Like all marketing activities, your participation in social media should have a specific purpose that supports your overall business goals. There are over 50 ways to use social media to market a business but not all will be suitable for your needs. The first key to your social media effectiveness is using the available methods and options appropriately to achieve a specific primary objective. For example, if we asked you why you want to market your business in social media, which one of these reasons would be first to come to mind?

I want to understand my market better and gain more insight into what’s really important to my customers.

and conversations to help me get my message out to my target market, build relationships with others that are mutually beneficial, and gain credibility.

my customers to tell others about our business, products and great results to generate word-ofmouth referrals, and share viral communications. customers to support each other and feel a sense of belonging to our community. and services by collaborating with my target market and past customers.

02 Plan your social media activities To help you stay “on purpose” and to best support your “why”, we recommend mapping the decisions you’ve made about

LINDA M. LOPEKE

is an internationally recognized authority on business management and creator of the award-winning SMARTSTART programs. She teaches creative entrepreneurs how to take decisive action so they can get their greatest work out into the world.. Click the link for more useful advice from www.smartstartcoach.com.

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 7

SOCIAL MEDIA which social media accounts to use and how frequently to post to them onto a social media planning calendar. This “must have” planning tool helps you organize all of your social media activities so you can work more efficiently and productively in these channels. And, putting your content ideas and inspiration in one place and coordinating them with your overall marketing strategy allows you to more effectively communicate your marketing message and share your expertise with the online world.

Yes, we are into the calendar year already, but it’s never too late to start planning how to maximize your investment in social media marketing. To help you plan promotional campaigns in conjunction with newsworthy events and special days of celebration, we’ve also included a handy link at the top of each month’s worksheet you can use for finding opportunities relevant to your business and target audience interests.

03 Monitor your results

When completed, you’ll know exactly what topics and themes you’ll cover, which social media channels you’ll post content to and when, and how your social media efforts fit in with and support all the other marketing and promotional activities you’ll undertake to build your business.

Finally, you’ll want to be able to review and analyse the results you’re getting from social media marketing so you can make adjustments to your plans if needed. Don’t be afraid to make changes to social media marketing plans that aren’t producing the results you want.

It’s also a great tool for ensuring all of the content you published in social media can be efficiently created, shared, tracked and managed. Additionally, as a best practice, you’ll want to track key contacts as well as the groups and forums you are participating in to share your expertise with others.

The calendar provides a detailed worksheet for tracking key marketing metrics throughout the year. These statistics show you what’s working and what’s not so you can optimize your campaigns while working to achieve your social media marketing goals.

You can download a free calendar here for planning all of your social media marketing.

Social media marketing is not free (despite what you’ve heard). It requires a significant investment of time and energy – there are costs associated with that. Planning your calendar helps you ensure you are using social media strategically and productively and investing your greatest effort in places where your target audience can be found and positive results can more reasonably be expected.

(Use the coupon code provided to automatically set the price to $0.00 for you. Instructions for customizing the calendar are included in the Excel workbook. New editions of the calendar are released in the last quarter of the year and are made available to subscribers at no charge when they become available.)

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8 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

LIST BUILDING & LEAD MANAGEMENT

9 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR

EMAIL LIST THAT WORK BY PAM IVEY

mail marketing is still the best form of online marketing that exists. It gets higher results than any other marketing, and when they tell you that “the money is in the list” they’re not kidding. If you’ve build your list, you can literally give yourself a raise whenever you want. But, you can’t wait around, you must start building your list immediately and continue building a targeted email list pretty much forever. There are many ways to build a list, and you should be incorporating the different ways to ensure that you’re reaching your audience. The following are 9 ways to build your list that are proven to work.

CONTENT MARKETING

Blogging, article marketing, social media, press releases, video, infographics, eBooks, apps, and so forth are just a few types of content that you should be creating to expand your brand, and build your list. Every effort should lead your audience to sign up for your email list.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE IMPORTANT As you build relationships on social media, forums, via your blog and all the content that you’re producing you’ll notice that people are more apt to not only sign up for your list when they feel like they know you, but they’re more likely to act on your calls to action and stay on your list too. KEEP THE CUSTOMERS YOU HAVE

Remember to not forget about the people who have purchased from you, your customers are very important. It costs a lot less to keep a customer happy than it does to acquire a new one. Segment your list so that customers are in their own list and potential customers are in another list. Offer current customers specials that are exclusive to them and you’ll keep them longer.

AVOID SPAM

No one likes SPAM, and it’s important that you read and understand the CAN-SPAM act. This blog by Ron Stauffer explains it really well. Read it and understand it so that

you can avoid problems. Another point to remember is that if you send useful, consistent content you’ll be less likely to be accused of spamming.

CREATE USEFUL CONTENT

Ensure that the content you create is useful to your target audience. If your audience consists of vegans don’t send them recipes for rack of lamb. Know your audience and know what type of content will provide value to your list members.

BE CONSISTENT

If you don’t have a plan in place when you get your first subscriber you might end up being accused of spam if they forget they signed up for the list. Put some messages in your autoresponder and tell the new subscribers what to expect from your email list messages and then stick to your promises.

TARGETED GIVEAWAYS

To get people to sign up in the first place, create targeted giveaways. By targeted, this means that you create giveaways that only your target audience would be interested in. You want to ensure your list is full of the right people and aren’t just freebie seekers.

JOINT VENTURE PARTNERSHIPS Know marketers who work within your same niche, but aren’t direct competition to you? Great! It’s time to form strategic partnerships so that you can both share the wealth of your various lists. Do a podcast or webinar together. Write a book together. Anything you can do where you both agree to promote to your own audiences each other’s work will pay off. There are many more ways to build your list than mentioned above. Forum commenting, blog post commenting and social media commenting are a few more ways in which you can help get your name out there so that more people sign up for your list. If you’re careful and only make useful comments you’ll build better relationships and a stronger email list.

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 9

CONTENT MARKETING

IN 2014

THE CONTENT STRATEGY YOU’RE NOT DOING RIGHT NOW

ontent marketing - 2014. The competition for traffic is fiercer than ever.

The search engine rankings are virtually impregnable. Article marketing is a no-no. Guest posting is fast diminishing in significance. PPC and Facebook ad minimum bids are increasing daily. There’s a new kid on the block. And his name is content syndication.

Content Syndication - A Brief Overview

In essence, content syndication is what happens when a blog or e-magazine syndicates content from another blog or e-magazine. Call it content duplication if you must.

BY JR JOHN Here’s an example: Joe Bloggs writes an article about “How To Scrunch A Pillow Perfectly Before Going To Bed” and posts it on his blog reallysoftpillows.com. The article ends with a brief CTA that leads back to his squeeze page, where he gives away a free eBook on “The 17 Best Soft Pillow Brands of 2014”. Once people get on his list, he markets affiliate products (in this case, pillows) to them. Joe Bloggs then e-mails Al Murphy. Al runs supersoftpillows.com, but he’s a bit lazy on the blogging part. Joe tells him that he’s written an awesome article about pillow on his blog, and Al can use it for free on his blog, under one condition -- Al has to include the original call-to-action when he posts it on his own blog. Al readily

CLICK AD TO VIEW WEBSITE

10 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

CONTENT MARKETING agrees, and so do fourteen other pillow bloggers that Joe e-mails. Random Internet surfers interested in really soft pillows view one of the duplications of the article, see Joe’s call-to-action, click on the link provided, and end up subscribing to Joe’s list. Joe markets to them, and eventually works his way up to the lifestyle of a dot com mogul as an affiliate pillow seller. In essence, Joe has let fifteen other marketers in his niche generate traffic for him. All he had to do was setup his autoresponder & sales funnel, post a crazy-awesome article on his blog about scrunching pillows, and e-mail fellow bloggers about his article.

Syndicating, or duplicating, content and posting it on your own blog doesn’t hurt your search engine rankings in the least, unless the content is spammy (think keyword-stuffing, lots of anchor text, and other manipulative practices). But that’s not all.

But What About Duplicate Content? Typically, whenever someone new to content syndication hears about it, they are quick to point out one apparent flaw in the equation. “Hey, JR – what about duplicate content? Google hates duplicate content, and only wants unique content. How do you explain that?” A lot of online marketers (and even professional SEOs who charge you for their “service”, I’m embarrased to admit), falsely assume that Google wants unique, original content. That’s a pséma (which is Greek for big, fat lie).

I have no idea where and how the myth got started, but it’s 100% false. Close to one fourth of all existing content on the web is duplicate content. Matt Cutts (unofficial spokesperson and head of the webspam team for Google) addressed this false assumption months ago. Truth is, content duplication doesn’t penalize a site in Google. However, in some instances, only one copy of the content will be indexed and shown in the SERPs (most of the time, this isn’t the case).

If your content gets syndicated to public blogs, you automatically receive a backlink from a legitimate site. Multiply this by fifteen blogs, and you’ve got a handful of relevant, highquality backlinks to your site. In essence, you’re increasing your traffic, brand visibility, and search engine rankings all in one shot. That’s why content syndication is so effective.

So, Why Don’t You Jump On The Content Syndication Bandwagon? Because in 2014, all the cool kids are doing it.

JR JOHN is a freelance writer & blogger who specializes in writing crazy-awesome blog posts that get syndicated (although he isn’t into pillows all that much). He blogs about blogging and likes to think that he’s out to make a difference (even though his real motivation is Krispy Kream donuts). He’s boring on Twitter, worse on Facebook, but a real gamechanger at his website http://services.jrjwrites.com

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ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 11

PRODUCT LAUNCHES

PRODUCT LAUNCH

TIPS SUCCESS FOR

product launch is more than one big day. Just like a business grand opening is more than the ribbon cutting, so a product launch is too. There is a lot of work to move your business forward to that big day, plus a lot of work to keep up the momentum after the big day. If you want to have a successful product launch you need to see product launches as more than the big day but as a process taking you toward the big day and after.

01 UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE Even before you develop one product it’s imperative that you understand and know your audience intimately. Try creating audience personas that describe individuals who are part of your market. 02

CREATE PRODUCTS YOUR AUDIENCE NEEDS

A product that will do well is one that solves a problem that your audience has. It’s much easier to sell a product they need than to convince them that they need a product you created without them in mind.

CRAFT A CLEAR MESSAGE Understanding your audience, and their needs, will enable you to develop a clear message and position yourself in the marketplace in a customer centric way. This will enable your message to truly resonate with your audience.

04 SET CLEAR GOALS Every step of the way, from product creation to marketing the product to launching the product you need to set clear goals. Be very specific about your goals that you want to reach and what it takes to reach them. If you’re not clear on what it takes to reach a goal, you might need to rethink your goals.

BY PAM IVEY

LEVERAGE MULTIPLE MARKETING CHANNELS

Don’t just market your product using one social media channel, implement a method to use them together. In addition, call on others who market to the same audience as you but who aren’t direct competition. Do a webinar together. Blog a lot. Use your newsletter. Create buzz on social media. Get people talking.

CREATE A FEELING OF EXCITEMENT

Working up your audience to being ready to buy your product at launch is something of an art. Using all the various marketing channels, and many different types of content to get people talking is essential to a great product launch and keeping momentum going after the launch date.

07 LAUNCH AT THE RIGHT TIME This goes back to understanding and knowing your audience enough to know when the right time to launch your product is for them to be able to buy it right then. If your audience consists of moms who have school age children you might want to second guess the idea of launching during back-to-school unless your product relates to back-to-school. Having a successful product launch is essential to your business success. Creating plans in advance during product creation, and after product creation to get the word out about your products before the launch will get people talking. Your audience will be ready when you make your product available for buying and the momentum will continue after launch day.

12 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

AFFILIATE & PARTNER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

INGREDIENTS

OF SUCCESS IN

JOINT VENTURES BY MILANA LESHINSKY, JV INSIDER CIRCLE

oint ventures are an amazing way to build your business fast. I believe that many people underestimate them.

A joint venture can help you meet a number of different goals, such as:

Building a list

Creating and marketing new products

Generating revenue quickly

Developing a product or co-create a product

Creating notoriety for both parties involved in the joint venture

Providing long-term leverage

When you put together a joint venture, it is very important that you follow a formula that works. Yes, there is a somewhat scientific approach to joint ventures. There are many types of joint ventures: cross promotions, free giveaways, telesummits, etc. Today I’d like to talk about one of the most popular and profitable ones, I call “co-creation”

– the type of partnership where two or more people create a product together. I’ve done this many times throughout my career and it’s one of the most rewarding business ventures I’ve ever experienced.

SAME TARGET AUDIENCE

You have to have the same target audience or a group of people with similar needs. For example, my JV partner has a list of coaches and I have a list of coaches. But my partner also has a list of authors, speakers, and other types of experts. So even though our lists are a little bit different and our target audiences are a little bit different, their needs are very similar. All of these people want to know how to license their intellectual property, such as seminars, workshops, training material, books, workbooks, and so on. So you have to have that as the common ground for your JV; either the same target audience or the same needs, even if your target audiences are different.

SOMEONE MUST HAVE A LIST

At least one partner has to have a database of prospects. This is your mailing list. Somebody in your partnership has to have

MILANA LESHINSKY

is the co-founder of the JV Insider Circle, the world’s first and only community of JV-minded coaches, authors, and speakers who want to find joint venture partners to grow their business. Get a FREE copy of the report she co-authored with her partner Rich German, called “Breaking the JV Code: Top 12 Reasons Joint Venture Partners Will NEVER Promote You!” by going to www.jvinsidercircle.com/freereport ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 13

AFFILIATE & PARTNER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT either a database of prospects or a way to access a database of prospects. Maybe you have affiliates, or maybe he or she has an affiliate network through which you can reach your prospects. Otherwise the project is something that is going to sit on your desk. You are going to be proud of it. But it is not going to sell. So you really want to make sure that somebody, one of you in the partnership, has access to a customer database.

EACH

PARTNER MUST PERCEIVE IT AS A WINNING DEAL

Each partner must feel that they are getting the better part of the deal. How is that possible? How is it possible for each party to feel like they are getting the longer end of the stick? Let me give you an example with the licensing project (Example #1). I felt like I was getting the better part of the deal because I knew nothing about licensing. So here I am, interviewing my partner, getting all that great information, and learning about this topic myself – for free. They are consulting with me for absolutely no cost. Now my partner is feeling like they are getting the better part of the deal because I came up with all the questions. Because I had a lot of questions, I asked the people on my list what they wanted to know about licensing. I had the technology to record everything, because that’s what I do, it’s easy for me, and I’ve got the set-up. I also wrote the sales letter and created the website. So they feel that they are getting the better part of the deal because I’m taking care of all the logistics.

Joint ventures are an effective strategy to propel your business to the next level quickly . . it took me just a few weeks of doing joint ventures during one winter, to build my list to 10,000 coaches. 04

PASSION FOR THE PROJECT

Both parties must be equally passionate, excited, and committed to working together. Can you imagine working with somebody who you have to drag to do everything? You have to literally beg for information? You have to literally beg to schedule an appointment to do the interview, to do proofreading, create marketing materials? It’s very frustrating, very hard to work with somebody who does not share your passion.

EXPANDING YOUR RELATIONSHIP

When you find a partner who really works well with you, what do you want to do? You want to hold on to that person. You want to create more opportunities together. You could put together seminars; create a home-study course or a training program. Continue to expand that relationship. Joint ventures and strategic alliances have tremendous potential for accelerating your business building. Instead of building your mailing list over the course of five years, you can build a list of 1,000 prospects within just a few months if you do joint ventures with organizations and like-minded companies. Joint ventures are an effective strategy to propel your business to the next level quickly. I’ve certainly done this myself. It took me three years to build a list of 1,000 coaches. But it took me just a few weeks of doing joint ventures during one winter, to build my list to 10,000 coaches. The potential of a joint venture, if done correctly, is extremely powerful.

INFOGRAPHIC - CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW

18 mind-blowing stats to inspire you.

interactive.com

Every click from every campaign has to land somewhere. And where those clicks land has the ability to influence whether or not they land & leave, or land & take action. Action is the ultimate success measurement for any campaign. Do your visitors click through your ad and bounce right away? Or do they stay only about and engage with you? Do they call, download, or complete a form? To maximize the number of visitors who land & take action, use campaign-specific landing pages. Here’s proof that campaign-specific landing pages work extraordinarily well at converting web visitors into qualified leads, calls and sales.

of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.

Landing pages lift conversions

— Econsultancy

Axway increased

ROI over 291%,

with custom landing pages & tests for each of their PPC ad groups with dynamically generated keyword-specific content on the pages. — Anvil Media

Dell, now with well over 1,000 landing pages, has seen conversion increases as high as 300% when testing landing pages against website pages. — ion interactive

Testing radically different landing pages against each other yielded a conversion increase of for Marian University. — ion interactive

A marketing solutions company increased its lead rate by 144% by strategically using PPC ad keywords on its landing pages, increasing relevancy between ads and landing pages. — MECLABS

Using a mobile-optimized version of their desktop landing page led to 153% increase in conversions for Deluxe. — ion interactive

Blurb increased average registrations from 7% to 13% with localized, dynamic landing pages. — Closed Loop Marketing

Landing pages deliver more leads

14 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

Companies with 40+ landing pages get more leads than those with 5 or less.

Companies with 30+ landing pages get more leads than those with 10 or less. — Hubspot

12x

STRATEGY

IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES FOR

SUCCESSFUL VIRAL MARKETING BY PAM IVEY

here isn’t a marketer out there who doesn’t wish for his or her efforts to “go viral”, but what if I told you that it this rarely happens accidentally? Conducting a viral marketing campaign takes planning, organizing, and an understanding of your audience that a lot of marketers simply don’t have. What’s really great is that savvy marketers before you have already determined what makes viral marketing work. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Know Your Audience Everything starts with knowing your audience. Research them so that you can understand their motivations, behavior and what moves them to action. Any marketer who can pull on the emotions of their audience can win conversions a lot easier. Remember that you may have a number of micro markets within your audience. You can market to each individual on different campaigns effectively by targeting different personas at various times.

Give Away Something Free Any marketing message that goes viral usually offers something free to the audience. The trick here is ensuring that your free offer is truly only interesting to your actual audience and not “freebie” seekers. But remember, your message can be the “free thing” too. If your meme, infographic or video or message is compelling enough it can go viral without actually giving away your products and services free. The message itself becomes the freebie.

Make it Easily Sharable Nothing will go viral if you don’t make it easy to do so. Encourage and reward others for sharing. Make it simple to do

so, they should not have to jump through any hoops to share the information with everyone they know. This can happen with share buttons, brandable documents, and more. The key is just to make it easy and rewarding to share. You want your audience to feel heroic just for sharing.

Be Social Almost every person on the planet is social to some degree. If you can insert yourself into your audience’s social networks you can easily share your messages to start the viral marketing campaign. Start with your own connections, and move out from there to other people’s social networks, newsletters, email lists, blogs and so forth.

Leverage Other People’s Resources A great example of using other people’s resources are affiliate programs. Sure you provide the code, but the affiliate puts the code on his or her website free of charge, in hopes of making a sale. Another example is offering free content to busy newsletters, blogs, and websites in exchange for your bio and a link to your website. The final example, I’ll give you today is the good old fashioned press release. Send them out, they wind up all over the place on other people’s sites, magazines, newspapers, and more. The final marketing principle to consider is whether you’re ready or not. If your campaign does go viral and people click through to your website or blog what will happen? Can your hosting provider’s server take the traffic? Nothing is worse than actually succeeding in having a marketing campaign go viral and not being ready for it.

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 15

STRATEGY

THE POWER

OF THE PRINTED WORD

ooks have always been a guilty pleasure for me. I remember hiding under the covers with my flashlight trying to finish my book before I could fall asleep. It was in High School (so many years ago!) that the power of the printed word really hit me. I still remember the day we had an actual published author come to our English class. I’ll never forget sitting there, just mesmerized while she read to us and told us how she got started writing, how she writes, the many doors it opened up to her, and the messages she could relay through her printed word. Now, I used to write articles for our school and local newspapers, so I understood some of what she was saying. But even though I was writing, somehow it just didn’t seem as significant as having a published book. Jump forward a few decades later. With every book I read, the power of what is printed on a single sheet of paper never ceases to amaze me. Whether it’s a fluffy Harlequin Romance, or a J.D. Robb who-done-it, a ‘tongue in cheek’ from Janet Evanovich, or business acumen from Michael Gerber, I am still left awed and inspired. For hundreds of years authors have been regarded with respect and admiration – Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Dickens. So it’s no wonder that today many entrepreneurs and speakers are published authors.

BY CAROLYN LEWIS, THE BOOK DIVA Do you see the major word that stands out when you see the word “authority?” AUTHOR! By becoming an author, one automatically claims their authority on the subject printed. Being an author is the definitive demarcation line of attack, as it truly separates you from the pack. Believe it or not, most authors do not write their books for the money. There really is very little money in books, unless you are a J.K.Rowling or a Donald Trump. In the real world of book writing, the actual purpose isn’t the book. It’s all about what the book will do for you. It’s all about the new opportunities that will be created, as well as all the doors that will finally open for you. Becoming a published author will afford you:

New-found respect and admiration

Personal satisfaction

Enhanced credibility

Expert status with your customers

New customer surge due to your increased credibility

Businesses, opportunities, and people naturally seek you

A high sense of accomplishment

Newfound connections and increased earnings

16 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

STRATEGY Credibility and esteem are what give authors an inside edge. This is an invaluable tool, which used properly, can translate into $$$. When your customers trust their source, it makes it possible for them to make important decisions in their business.

There is no greater branding, or client enticement, than being a published author.

Whether you decide to write your own book, use a ghostwriter, or be included in a Multi Author book with other leaders, there’s no better way for you to create yourself as an authority. Once your potential customers realize that you are a published expert, they will be ready to work with you, while also referring you to others. Being an author can multiply your chances of getting every customer you meet as a client. You’ll profit from being an author for your entire life…… And no one can ever take that away from you.

The trust and authority granted to authors is already formed in the minds of the public. This knowledge is worth more than a king’s ransom! This knowledge should be the foremost reason for becoming an author. It’s all about the new opportunities, the previously closed doors opening, and the enhanced business relationships that being an author create. All this answers the question of: “Why should I become a published author?” Think about it. Would you rather work with an “Average Joe,” or an “Author/Expert?” Of course you’d rather do business with the branded expert. So does the majority of the population. Writing a book will allow you to STAND OUT from your competition….and put you at the level of all the other leaders that you have admired. The bottom line is that being an author automatically makes you a branded expert. If you want an enormous advantage over your competitors….then become a published author and brand yourself as the business expert in your niche.

CAROLYN LEWIS

There is no greater branding, or client enticement, than being a published author.

Here’s to taking the next step to becoming the published AUTHORity in your field!

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ABOUT CAROLYN LEWIS, THE BOOK DIVA

knew many years ago the power of the printed word. From writing articles for her local newspaper, to becoming Sr. Editor, to doing interviews for a local radio station, she got an early start into the publishing world. For many years Carolyn was perfecting her business background in the corporate world, which ultimately led to owning and operating her own businesses, in addition to overseeing her husband’s $100 million Land Development business as Chief Financial Officer. After a diligent review of new business opportunities, the potential to impact people’s lives with a published book was by far the next exciting choice. With a true passion and desire for helping entrepreneurs to “take it to the next level,” Carolyn is here to assist you in producing your printed book, thereby accomplishing your goal to become the expert in your field. Carolyn is the co-owner and Managing Editor of Nomad CEO Publishing, the #1 Ghost Publishing Company. Even though they are based in the US, they have published authors worldwide, including The UK, Belgium, Africa, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Spain, just to name a few. You can connect directly with Carolyn at clewis@nomadceo.com for more information on how you, too, can join the ranks as a published author, or visit www.nomadceo.com. ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 17

SOCIAL MEDIA

FOUR

CRITICAL REASONS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

TO HAVE A SOCIAL

MEDIA PRESENCE

BY MIRIAM SLOZBERG | IMAGE COURTESY OF PHANLOP88 / FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

n order for any business to grow, different channels of marketing always need to be harnessed such as advertising through print or even radio. However, the one huge marketing channel that every business needs to take the best advantage of is through social media. The majority of consumers are using social media to network and to explore anything they can about any business they are interested in learning about. While traditional advertising channels such as print, radio and television still have their purpose of letting the consumer know there is a new product or service out, the consumers want to read up on other consumers experiences with that product or service. The channel that they can do this is through social media, and every business must use social media to market themselves. The main reasons that social media marketing for business growth is crucial is listed below.

individual in charge of social media for that business will jump on and rectify the issue. Conversations that get out of hand that are full of negative feedback will harm the business or brand’s reputation if someone does not jump on to come to the rescue quickly enough.

Positions the Business Owner or Manager as Highly Influential - In order for a business or brand to stand out, the owner or heavily involved manager of the business needs to find a way to stand out and become influential in his or her niche. Once the business owner or manager, or anyone heavily involved in the business can master how to become influential through social media which will spill onto his or her offline corporate life- clients and customers will eventually flock to him or her business.

Consumers are Interested in Networking with People, Not the “Business” Itself. In other words, people want to connect with other people that are working at the company or better yet, the business owner him or herself. Yes, you can find a phone number on an ad and call that number. However, social media gives the consumer an opportunity to develop a relationship with the business owner or manager which is meaningful to the consumer.

Loyalty is Created. A business owner or anyone heavily involved in the business has an opportunity to not only become influential in his or her niche that is relevant to the business however is encouraged to engage and interact with others by gaining trust and expanding his or her network. Not only will those in his or her networks eventually become loyal clients or customers however, they will tell their friends as word of mouth is very powerful.

02 Reputation Protection. Conversations do happen all the time on social media channels about a business or brand. If there is negative feedback about a particular business, the

Traditional ways of marketing is still encouraged to be used as a way for businesses to grow, however an essential marketing channel is social media.

MIRIAM SLOZBERG

is a Canadian mom, author, and SEO and social media manager - who is focusing most of her time on teaching and empowering entrepreneurs and job seekers on how to be influential in their niche by harnessing the power of social media. Find out more about Miriam www.miriamslozberg.com. 18 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

SEO

SMARTER RESEARCH

BY PAM IVEY

nline marketers still need to conduct keyword research in spite of the search engine algorithm changes. Keywords are still an important part of running a business online, and/or marketing a business online.

To conduct smart keyword research: Know Your Audience

Pay Per Click Campaigns

Some people in your audience are very familiar with your brand, and will appreciate being able to find your content easily by using recognizable words. Then some of your audience is not familiar with you, but can relate to the benefits of the products. In those cases you’ll use different keywords to attract them. Never stop researching your audience.

Effective Search Engine Optimization

Stay Up-to-date In the Industry

Subject Matter Research

Always read industry news to help you stay informed about your niche. There are always new bits of information that will form brand-new keywords and keyword phrases to attract even more people to your products and/or services. The more you understand about the different areas you can find terms: brand, product, competitors, audience, product substitutes and so forth; the better you’ll be able to develop an effective keyword list.

You need keywords for a variety of reasons such as:

Content Development

All keyword research starts about the same way. You create a list of words and phrases that you already know matter in your niche. Most do this by simply performing a brain dump on paper. Then you expand the list by using various keyword research tools like WordTracker and Google Adwords Keyword Planner or one of the many other premium tools available to you for this reason.

Determine which keywords are worth it for you to target. You’ve heard it before: Choose high-volume keywords that have little to no competition. Then, you use that list of words and phrases to formulate your PPC campaigns, perform effective SEO, research your subject deeper, and to develop ongoing and compelling content within your niche.

Create a Large and Continually Growing Master Keyword List You will want a large number of keywords, keyword phrases, along with their variations, which will become known as your Master Keyword List. You should add to the list anytime you find a new word or phrase.

Examine Meta Data for Other Top Results Your competition matters when it comes to keyword research. It’s possible you may not have the ability to go head-to-head with your competition in a PPC bidding war, but you can still learn a lot of valuable information by studying the meta data of the other top search results. You may learn brand-new terms and related terms that you did not think of before.

Study Your Own Metrics Where is your audience coming from right now? While Google is hiding some keyword results from your view, other search engine providers are not doing that yet. You can combine the “keyword not provided” results and surmise where they likely came from by looking at Google’s competition’s analytics. Finally, keyword building is not something that will ever end unless you go out of business. You should always be building your keyword list. You can have thousands of keywords on your list. The more keywords you can find and develop the easier it will be for you to come up with content, conduct audience research, and build your traffic with targeted, responsive individuals.

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 19

CONTENT MARKETING

BLOGGING 101: OR DOES ANYONE REALLY READ BLOGS?

f you’ve tried writing a blog for any length of time, you probably find yourself asking: “Why am I doing this, and is anyone even reading it?” Plus, does anyone actually read any blogs? Well, the resounding answer for the second question is yes. Think about this: More than 60 percent of people surveyed by Pew Research Center’s Internet Project report reading blog posts on the Internet to gather information before making buying decisions. Plus, research conducted by Hubspot shows that website owners, who post at least 20 blog posts a month, report getting more traffic and more leads.

BY STEPHANIE WATSON SO YES, BLOGS ARE READ. BUT, IS ANYONE READING YOURS? WELL THAT DEPENDS.

What is a Blog? Let’s consider exactly what a blog is. Today, a blog and a website are really interchangeable. A blog used to be a diary like area, not even associated with a website, where the posts always appeared in chronological order. They were in fact usually diaries. They were typically boring too. But today, it’s hard to tell the difference between a blog and a website. The truth is, the blog on your website is part of your website. It’s just as much part of your website as any other area, and probably

ABOUT STEPHANIE WATSON With more than 20 years experience working from home in a variety of roles such as HTML Website Designer, Internet Marketer, Template Bender, and Virtual Assistant, today Stephanie is an author and content strategist who organizes, plans, writes and implements content strategies for business owners through her business at Barry Publishing. You can find her at Linkedin.com www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniewatsonbarry and contact her via her website www.barrypublishing.com. 20 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

CONTENT MARKETING one of the most important. The blog provides an easy way to add content and update your website.

Why Do I Need a Blog? The great thing about the Internet and having a website is that it works for you 24/7, 365 days a year. Even when you’re sleeping your website is there to service potential clients, provide leads, and help current clients. Without a blog, your website will serve as nothing more than a brochure. With a blog, your website comes alive. The act of blogging feeds the search engines with regularly updated content which helps people find you. The blog posts also serve as a way to share information with your audience, as well as start important traffic-generating two-way discussions.

How Do I Promote My Blog? Whether or not anyone reads your blog is going to depend on whether or not you promote your blog. Of course, you can take the slow route and keep posting well-written, informative, original content directed toward your niche audience and see how long the search engines take to start sending you traffic. But, why do that when there are so many great ways to promote your blog today? Use social media, directories, good search engine optimization practices and word-of-mouth to promote your blog to start getting traffic and readers fast.

How Do I Know if My Blogging is Effective? As they say, “Nothing is done until the paperwork is complete.” In this case, that means metrics. Using Google Analytics, you can find out a lot of information about the people who are reading your blog. Measure the number of visitors, how many leads you collect, how many people subscribe to your newsletter, who is linking to your blog, and who is sharing your posts on social media. Use the information collected to write about more topics of interest that your audience wants to read.

The great thing about blogging is that it truly works.. How Often Should I Post? Most business owners find that blogging at least 20 times a month, if not more, is the key to creating a steady flow of leads through their website. There are many reasons why this is true, but one of them has to do with what I mentioned above. Search engines. Good search engine optimization requires high quality, relevant and consistent updates of content. A blog is an excellent way to accomplish that.

The great thing about blogging is that it truly works to help any business, online or offline, get more traffic, collect more leads and ultimately earn more paying clients. Plus, you don’t even have to do your writing yourself. You can outsource all your blogging so that you can keep doing whatever it is that you do best, but more of it. At the same time, if you enjoy writing, you can take just 15 to 20 minutes each morning to put out a blog post that helps you create a winning online presence.

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SEO

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR PERFORMANCE

BY PAM IVEY

n today’s fast paced society, speed matters. If you don’t have a fast loading website that performs as expected, you will immediately frustrate current and potential customers possibly losing them for good. Goal to shoot for: 3 Second Loading Time on Any Device. Anything longer and you will lose your audience. Google uses page loading speed as a top criteria for website ranking. If your site is slower than 3 seconds you will lose out on a lot of potential customers and traffic. Plus, even those who still find you, will click away in frustration.

THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT LOADING SPEED ARE:

01 02 03 04

Your Website Hosting Provider

The Speed of Your Customer’s Internet Connection

The File Size of Images On Your Site The Cleanliness of Your Website’s Code How Much Information is Being Pulled From Other Sources

As you see you only have control over the first 4 so there is where you should place your focus.

ENSURE YOUR HOST IS REPUTABLE & FAST

It’s important to know what type of platform you need based on what type of website you’re going to build. Will it be a WordPress site, will it have ecommerce capabilities, will it have a lot of images? What will your site consist of? Will it have a message board, will you run advertisements hosted from elsewhere? There is a lot to consider when choosing a host. Go with the highest rating host, and the highest level of hosting that they offer, that you can afford, that delivers what you need based on how you plan to use it. Don’t skimp on this important decision.

02 COMPRESS IMAGES & CSS SPRITE You don’t need to use as large of image files on the computer as you

might need for print, compress the images then use HTML, and host the images on your own server instead of places like Flicker. In addition, you can combine & syndicate many images into one image for faster loading, this is what CSS Sprite does. You can also use a content delivery network (CDN) like MaxCDN, which will enable your visitors to download the files to their computers faster by placing your files in multiple locations around the globe allowing your visitors faster access depending on their own location.

03 CHOOSE WELL CODED THEMES You likely use a platform like WordPress to build your sites and this is a good choice. However, it does matter which themes you choose, as well as which plugins you choose. Research your choices and learn enough about code so that you can look at your files for redundancies and issues that can create dirty code that messes up load times. You’re likely to get better results from a paid premium theme than a free one, so it helps to know what to look for. 04

COMBINE AND MINIMIZE Your site will have HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more so it’s important to know how to combine what you can. You can use a software program to minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript here on this website. There are other examples that you can search for that do the same thing. Plus, loading multiple JavaScripts and CSS files can severely slow down load times, so combining them into one large file each instead of multiple files will improve load times. You may be reading this and thinking, “Wow, this is way outside my pay grade.” Well, you may not be a web designer, but it’s important to understand that load time matters and anything that affects conversions affects marketing’s return on investment. It’s important to learn about these terms, and what’s out there to help so that you can speak intelligently to your web designer when needed.

22 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

LISA LARTER

ONLINE MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

POWERHOUSE

BY KATE SMITH

self-taught sales guru, Lisa worked her way up the Corporate ladder from retail sales associate to a senior leadership role with TELUS where she supported a retail team, coast to coast in Canada, and was responsible for about 100M in sales. In 2006, her entrepreneurial spirit took over and she opened Parlez Wireless, her own company, and soon after, she expanded her business to include Lisa Larter Consulting. Lisa helps entrepreneurs, authors, small businesses and corporations build relationships with their customers through social media so they can drive traffic and increase sales. She has worked with many high-profile entrepreneurs including

Kate: How long have you had an online business? Lisa: I’ve had an online business for five years. I walked away from my corporate job in 2006 and opened a TELUS wireless store. Although I had a website for that store, it wasn’t really until 2009 that I started dabbling in my own brand online and offering my own services online.

Kate: Can you tell us about what you do and what problems your business solves for your kind of clients?

Lisa:

Deepak Chopra, Arielle Ford and Peggy McColl as well as organizations such as eWomenNetwork and Hasmark Services. She is also a highly sought-after speaker and has shared the stage at various events with such luminaries as Brendon Burchard, Lisa Sasevich, John Gray, Mike Koenigs and Fabienne Fredrickson. Lisa is known for her no-nonsense approach to helping business owners and executives drive results through solid strategic planning, social media, and customer experiences. Sign up for her free report “5 Ways to Make Money Using Social Media” at www.lisalarter.com.

them drive traffic either to their website or their physical bricks and mortar location by connecting them with their customers through social media and online marketing. Traffic is one of the three things you need in order to be able to increase sales, and that is something all businesses have in common. A need to increase sales.

Kate: How did you make the leap from the full-time job to doing this?

Lisa: Prior to opening my store, I led a team of about 1,000

A lot of my clients are small business owners, both online and retail store operators and I also work quite often with corporations and shopping centers. In each instance, I help

people and I was responsible for 100 million dollars in retail sales. When I left that corporate job to open my own business, I found that I had a lot of knowledge around how to run a

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 23

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT business, including systems and processes, operationalizing a business, training and leading a team, marketing, etc., that the average business owner didn’t have. And, as I was networking and meeting people in business while trying to grow my business, I found that I often ended up being on the board of all these networking organizations leading people because I was used to leading and teaching. One day, a woman pulled me aside and said, “If you would teach us to do what you know how to do online, we would pay you to learn.” I looked at her incredulously. I didn’t realize what I knew how to do was different from everyone else. That afternoon I went to another networking event. There were only 20 people there that day and I only got to speak to 10 of them. But when we did our little rounds of networking, I said that I was looking for people who wanted to take a workshop to learn how to use social media for their business. And all 10 people signed up. I didn’t have a sales page. I didn’t have an offer form. I didn’t have anything! I just had an idea. And I walked away that day, thinking, Wow! There’s actually an interest in this.

We’ve done this over and over with shopping centres and our clients have won a number of awards with the International Council of Shopping Centres because we have been able to increase mall traffic and increase sales per square footage as well as increase their reach online and find a way to somehow tie that into a give-back to the community. It’s fun because you’re connecting people on a hyper-local targeted basis. So now I’ve got big reach-out brands who are coming to me and they’re saying, “How can we partner with the shopping centre?” so they can target that traffic. Previously they would be trying to target traffic on a national level and maybe they’re reaching one percent, whereas when you go hyper-local and you communicate with people who are connected to the venue they shop in, it’s easier to drive that traffic to your actual retail location and increase the reach significantly.

Kate: I’ve

never heard of that kind of approach to getting people into a shopping centre.

Lisa: The problem we solve for our customers is we educate

Lisa: That’s what I would say is my sweet spot and the one thing that makes me really unique from a lot of other people. My background and expertise is really in retail and the wireless industry. Then, I learned how to use social media for my own business and I began to understand social media really well because of my experience in the wireless industry. In that business you’re selling the hardware to people who want to use software like Facebook. So when you’re working with people with mobile apps and teaching them technology all the time, you understand how that consumer interacts with their mobile device. When you put all three together, it kind of creates the perfect storm of success for businesses.

them on how to reach their customers through online marketing and social media marketing so they can drive traffic to their business.

Kate: Tell us about the incredible long list of self-development entrepreneurs like Deepak Chopra and how did they come to get connected with you.

Kate: Could you give us an example? Lisa: Sure. When I work with a shopping centre, they want

Lisa: Deepak is an interesting story. I was working with a company called Hasmark Services. I had spoken at an event in San Diego for Arielle Ford for 21st Century book marketing and Hasmark Services was also there. We met some people from Harper Collins and Harper One after which, Harper One decided to work with Hasmark on a couple of book launches. One of those was Deepak’s.

So, in 2009, I started dabbling one day a week on that business and the rest of the time in my wireless business. In 2010, I went half-time and then, in 2011, I worked on that business full-time. The following year, I sold my wireless business and now I have a team of seven people who work with me and the business is thriving.

Kate:

That is really interesting to find out the pathway to where you are now. Going back again, tell us about your business and what problems it solves.

to drive traffic across the lease line. For example, I’m working with a client right now on an Instagram campaign where they are going to give away some Instagram photo finishing when people share pictures on social media using a hashtag related to the property where they want them to shop. They have to come into the property in order to redeem the gift-withpurchase that is tied to photo finishing. It all works together. The online element creates awareness of the promotion that’s being run. The awareness drives traffic into the actual center because people want to participate in the contest and have a chance at having one of the free gifts-with-purchase. When you drive traffic into the centre and you have everybody talking about the centre, more people become aware of what’s going on. Once they’re in the centre, they shop.

Later, as I was working with Judy from Hasmark to help her plan the social media campaign for the book launch, I noticed some things that weren’t necessarily working the right way. She really wanted to connect with Deepak because they wanted a video from him and she was having a really hard time getting to him because her contacts were through Harper One, not directly with him. This was quite a few years ago and I said to her, “I’m pretty sure he tweets himself because he’s tweeting from a Blackberry

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT device and just based on the voice that I see and the frequency, the behaviour would indicate to me that it’s actually him tweeting from his mobile device.” So, that morning we were on the phone doing a business call at 7 am and I logged into her account and sent a message to him and said we were really looking forward to working on this campaign for you. And within five minutes, he replied. He followed us and I gave him her email address so that he could connect with her via email so she could explain what she needed and cut myself out of the loop. But then, in preparing for the social media launch, I went back to Judy with a whole bunch of things I saw that weren’t necessarily working right on his side from a social media perspective that could potentially negatively impact the reach of the book. So, she took my email with all my recommendations and sent it to him and then said, “This is the consultant we work with on social media. If you’d like to speak to her, let me know.” And sure enough, he replied back and said, “Yes, please send me her number.” And the next thing you know, my phone’s ringing and I’ve got Deepak Chopra on the phone asking me questions about social media, which was really, really cool. I think I had two or three conversations with him about different things. What I really, really loved about the experience I had with Deepak is when you look at somebody who is as well known as he is, who is as busy as he is, and he travels all over the world, you would think that this is somebody who probably doesn’t have a lot of time for social media. And I remember him distinctly saying to me, “I want you to help me understand how to use Facebook better. I understand how to connect directly to people and have conversations with people on Twitter but I haven’t figured out how to be able to connect directly with people in the same way on Facebook and I really want to learn how to do that.”

For me, that was a really huge defining moment because if someone like him cares enough about connecting with real people, why is it that so many other people think that they can just do “spray and pray” marketing all the time and that connecting with people isn’t important? They’re missing the real opportunity, which is one-to-one. It’s people. It’s not about the fancy ad and the clever copy. It’s really about your ability to connect.

Kate: What a fantastic story. I’m sure that’s led to all kinds of other connections you’ve had with pretty high-profile people. Lisa: I have a knack for connecting with high-profile people. I don’t know why. I guess maybe because I’m not really phased by their profile because I think that we’re all people. We all eat. We all sleep. We all sweat. We’re just people. I think that every one of us is out here trying to do the best that we can in life. For a long time, I didn’t tell the Deepak story and the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want it to look like I was trying to use him to elevate myself. So, I think the reason I’m able to connect with high-profile people and build relationships with them is that I’m not trying to use them. I respect them as people and I respect what they’ve done and I approach them from a place from trying to add value and be a real person, versus approaching them from the point of “what can you do for me?”.

Kate: Maybe there’s a new term that should be coined like integral marketing. Lisa: Exactly. I call it S.W.I.F.T. I say you need to be a S.W.I.F.T. marketer – See What’s In It For Them. Kate: I love that. Lisa: The other thing that I have to say is I’ve worked with a lot of really, really smart and really, really successful people in the Canadian wireless industry. And I have to say a lot of

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ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 25

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT what I know and a lot of the success that I have created in my business I attribute to that foundation. Starting in the wireless industry back in ‘97 when companies like Clearnet Communications were revolutionizing the way the wireless industry worked for consumers was a really good place to be from a learning perspective.

Kate: As

a big player in the online marketing arena, what was one thing you learned that set you on the right path in your business?

Lisa: I don’t really think of myself as a big player in the online marketing area. I still think I’m a little guy. And maybe that’s one of the things that’s good. I don’t have a big ego. I’m trying to build a business just like everybody else out there. And I’m trying to do it my way. I think that really understanding my distinct value and how I’m different is important. I’m really good at retail wireless and social. I’m not trying to be all things to all people. And I’m confident in my value. I’m confident in what I deliver to my clients. I don’t just take anybody as a customer. What I see sometimes in the online world, I almost see a sense of desperation to grow business. When people start to behave like they’re desperate, it looks like they lack confidence and clarity in their business.

Kate: That’s what a lot of business owners need to recognize instead of going off in too many shiny object directions. In a way, business is much simpler than that. Lisa: I would say there are two things that are happening. 1. They’re trying to parrot or mimic what they see everyone else doing and are really only seeing the tip of the iceberg. They don’t understand the foundation below the tip. And so, they are not able to duplicate the same success because they don’t understand what went into making that happen.

2. The other thing is marketing. For me, there are three core principles when it comes to building a business. It’s like building a house. a. The foundation is understanding the business metrics understanding the numbers of your business. And if your foundation is cracked, your house is going to fall down. b. The second piece that is really important is the systems and processes or the operations; how you do things in your business. To me that’s like the framing and the walls that you put up in your house. c. And the third thing is marketing. It’s understanding who you’re marketing to and what forms of traditional and online marketing you’re going to use to differentiate yourself from everyone else. So that’s like putting the roof on your house. But a lot of business owners do the opposite. They try to build the roof before they have a foundation and walls. Their business falls apart on them because they don’t have the structure in place before they start marketing to people to build their business.

Kate: What kinds of changes have you seen in how social media is applied, the technology and where it’s going?

Lisa: I definitely see a lot more adopters and a lot more people understanding the power of social media. I saw a joke the other day that said, “If your spouse tells you that they never look at your Facebook profile, change your status to single and wait five minutes and see what happens.” I laughed. People used to say they don’t use it very often. And now I think it’s become completely mainstream. Businesses are on it. Consumers are on it. Kids are on it. Seniors are on it. Everyone’s on it. My own mother, who is 65 years old, is using more data on her mobile device each month than I do because she’s a Pinterest addict. The biggest change, I would say, is how comfortable people are using it now. The change I’ve also seen from a marketing

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT perspective is it has become a lot more spammy and advertorial in nature versus social. I think that when you look at the people who are always selling versus the brands that are building relationships and building trust, it’s like they’re fighting an uphill battle. People love to buy but they hate being sold to. If you stop trying to sell and start trying to build a relationship, you’ll get more business because you’ve done that. I would say as the adoption has gone up and more and more people are using it, there is less focus on building relationships and more focus on mass marketing because you have a critical mass of people. It’s almost like some of these brands think that if they mass market like they do using traditional marketing, they’re going to get the same one percentage uptake. They are not spending enough time on the engagement piece. When I teach people, I call it a continuum of trust. And I draw this diagram where you’ve got your lowest-priced item on one side of the line and your highest-priced item on the other side. And when you meet people online, the goal should be to develop a relationship in person if they are your ideal client. Because, when you meet someone online, they’ll spend $7, $97, or even $197. But if you want to convert some of your online traffic into big-ticket sales, you need to move them along the continuum of trust before they will spend that kind of money. The clients who work with me spend $20-$50,000 a year, and they have all met me in person. They’ve all seen me speak or they’ve come to a training event. They’ve somehow interacted with me on a one-on-one basis before they’ve committed to that level of investment. Most of the sales I get strictly online are $3,000 and below. And those purchasers have not met me in person. People don’t understand the value of moving people along that trust continuum and the importance of connecting with them in person once they build a relationship online.

Kate: I love your approach. You said you work with a team of seven people. What kinds of roles and activities to you delegate to them and what do you handle yourself?

way that I want it to be said. I do my own social media posting because it has to be me. I understand a shopping centre hiring somebody to do social media for them. I understand a big brand doing the same. I even understand some business professionals who just don’t have the time to do it hiring somebody to help them. But because of the level of experience I have working in the mobile industry, well, I’ve been attached to a mobile phone longer than I was attached to a soother for God’s sake! It’s intuitive to me to use my phone to be connected. I have to do my own social media because that’s so important to me, having that interaction with the customer.

Kate: When

it comes to online marketing, the magazine’s focus as well as the new Online Marketing Manager Certification Program, what do you think are the kinds of skills an Online Marketing Manager should possess?

Lisa: The number one thing I would say an Online Marketing Manager needs to get is they need to understand the core business strategy. If they don’t, they will not be able to translate that strategy through the online marketing that they do. The second thing I would say for an Online Marketing Manager to have is exceptional social skills because if they don’t know how to build relationships with people, they’re going to struggle to drive engagement. I hire a lot of people who have worked in retail and are comfortable striking up conversations with strangers because that skill set is transferable to online. The third thing I would say an Online Marketing Manager needs to possess is exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail. If you’re not organized about how you plan your time, about how you’re going to share and structure your content, and you’re not detailed about how things go up and how pictures are centered and spelling and grammar, etc., you can make your client look really bad in half a second.

Kate: Do you have a favourite go-to tool or system you use in your business?

Lisa:

We have customers who hire us to do everything for them, so my team is trained on how to do all of that tactical stuff. They take care of online marketing, posting on Facebook, Twitter, sending out eblasts, and more.

I have a bunch. First of all, Google calendar is my number one go-to tool because it organizes everything for me. Infusionsoft is my online cash machine. I do all my email marketing, all my online sales, all my program delivery through Infusionsoft. And my team really likes using Hootsuite because it helps them to manage and schedule certain things on social media and be able to monitor easily and see who’s done what.

The one thing that I can’t necessarily delegate to my team is the strategy that I develop with a client. I can teach them how to develop strategy but right now, most of the clients want to do strategy work with me. I usually write my own copy because I don’t feel like anyone else can say things in my voice the

And then from a project management perspective in order to make sure we don’t miss out on things that need to be done, we really like Redbooth. I love the simplicity of Redbooth. It might sound corny. It’s easy to use but it also looks pretty. For me, a little bit of a brand geek, it has to have a nice user feel

Lisa: My

business does three distinct things. One is online programs that we sell. The second is coaching and strategy with me. And the third is done-for-you marketing.

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT to it. So those are the four tools online that I really like and that we use every day.

Kate: What has been one of your biggest challenges as an online entrepreneur and how did you overcome it?

Lisa: I would say there are two. The first challenge I had when I first started was a lack of confidence around who’s going to want to hear from me. I still remember my web guy wanting to put this big picture of me on my website, and I was horrified. I thought, Oh my God, that looks so self-centered! I really had to learn that I had value to add in the early stages and that people would want to hear from me. The second thing was learning how to translate an idea into a program that sells. Sometimes I think we compare our beginning to someone else’s home run. I have friends in the online marketing world who have a list that is like 100 times the size of mine. Well of course I’m not going to get 1000 people on my very first webinar when I have 100 people on my list. The challenge in the beginning was building my list and being patient enough to build it and grow it so that I could actually grow the business. I think a lot of people give up and think they’re a failure when really they just haven’t given themselves the proper 12 to 24 months to grow and build their business. In my first webinar, I think I had 20 people. Nobody bought, and I was horrified. I remember what that was like. But that’s where I talk about understanding the business metrics. You should be measuring how much your list is growing every month. How much is your social reach growing every month? How much is the traffic to your website growing? If you only get 10 people on this month’s webinar, how many can you get on next month’s webinar?

So many people don’t look at the data and there is so much guidance there. Look at it with the mindset of how can I versus I can’t. Don’t look at it and say, “Oh, I’m never going to get a thousand people in a webinar.” Look at it and say, “How can I go from 10 to 20?” “How can I go from 20 to 50?” “How can I go from 50 to 100?” Set goals and work towards them. Inchby-inch, it’s easy. But if you’re trying to get to where somebody else is and they’ve been working at it for five or 10 years, you’re going to be depressed.

Kate: Can

you give us one technique or strategy you find invaluable in making your business work better?

Lisa:

Clarity. As simple as that. Be completely clear on what your business is and don’t have more than three or four key priorities for your business for the year. When I look at my business, I have a revenue goal. I have a list goal. And I have internal goals. I don’t try to set up 100 different things at once. I don’t spread myself too thin. I’m always looking at “does what I’m doing today align with what I want most versus what I want right now?” If you have way too much stuff going on, you’re not going to be good at anything. Simplify and get really clear on the two or three things that are absolutely most important and put all your efforts towards those things.

Kate: Another great piece of sage advice. Do you have any speaking engagements coming up in the near future?

Lisa: I’m speaking at a social media camp in Victoria at the end of April and at the eWomenNetwork annual conference in Dallas in August.

Kate: Where can we find you online? Lisa: www.LisaLarter.com. CLICK AD TO VIEW WEBSITE

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SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MOBILE

EXPLOSION M

BY PAM IVEY

obile devices outsold PCs this past year, a trend started in 2011 and thought to only continue due to the advent of tablet technology. Consumers enjoy having technology that is mobile, that works fast, and that they can use to access information 24/7. But, what does this mean for marketers?

Your Website Should be Mobile-Friendly Designing a responsive website is now an imperative that cannot be ignored. According to the blog, Shareaholic, publishers saw traffic from Facebook grow massively in 2013 and most of that increase was due to mobile devices and a more mobile-friendly Facebook. This means that now, more than ever, the impetus to build a responsive website is upon you. Thankfully building mobile-friendly sites isn’t difficult if you use the WordPress platform to build your sites. Simply change to a mobile-friendly theme.

Make it Easy to Share Information Don’t forget to add the social buttons on your content so that your viewers can easily share the content they read with their friends. Integrating a “like” button, for Facebook is very simple with a simple plugin if you use WordPress. If you don’t you can go to Facebook and grab the code to put on your website to make it easy to integrate Facebook with your mobile-friendly website.

Break Content Up into Shorter Sharable Pieces Most people who read content on their mobile devices don’t want to have to scroll down more than once. Remember that as

you write and produce content for your website as well as your e-newsletters. Use bullet points, headings and subheadings frequently. Chunky, shorter content is better than long drawn out intense paragraphs for reading on a mobile device.

Avoid Using Too Many Pictures Images are important for your website, but don’t go too crazy. You want images to be relevant, and enhance the content, but not over take it. Be sure to learn how to optimize images for mobile. Remember that there is limited screen space. Using effective HTML and CSS can help images resize according to the device looking at them. Don’t use Java. Just don’t.

Allow Mobile Purchasing If you sell services, information products, or tangible goods it’s important to start allowing purchasing via mobile devices. Making it easy for readers to buy while the desire is hot, as they read your information, is important because most people aren’t going to wait until they go home to order something. They want to be able to order right now, when they want it. It’s not enough now to just use social media networks, now you need to also have a mobile-friendly website, with the ability to make purchases at the time of interest. Remember, all your social media networking should lead readers back to your website where they can read more, consume more information, and hopefully make a purchase. If readers click through on a social media share, and cannot comfortably see the content, they’re not going to check back later. It’s now or never.

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PRODUCT LAUNCHES

INS & OUTS THE

PRODUCT

LAUNCH Y

ou’ve spent weeks, maybe even months, writing your new eBook or home study system. You brought on a graphics designer to make sure your product rocks the casbah. You’re even ready with a fulfillment company to print the CDs, DVDs, and workbook. You give a sigh of relief... you’re done. Uh, no, you’re not. Now, you have to market the thing that you’ve just spent weeks and months developing. You’re not anywhere near being done. What most entrepreneurs and people who market their businesses online don’t always remember to account for is that marketing a product is as a big a project with as many moving parts as creating the thing in the first place.

BY DAWN GOLDBERG While “build it, and they will come” worked in the movie Field of Dreams, it doesn’t quite work that way in the online field. Ideally, you plan out the development of your product (what’s needed, what do you delegate, how long is it going to take, research, etc.) at the same time you plan the launch. So you build it, and then you TELL people to come.

HERE ARE YOUR QUICK 6 STEPS TO A LAUNCH PLAN.

First, remember that the launch plan is separate from and quite different from the development your product.

Build in space between the development of your product and the actual launching. It’s going to be

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PRODUCT LAUNCHES

way too taxing to roll right into launch mode after development mode.

launch. So, you have the final end date of people

Break down your launch plan into steps. That way you don’t forget anything, and marketing doesn’t feel overwhelming. And just like with your product development, see what you can outsource and delegate.

is your marketing campaign, which is traditionally

buying your product. Going backwards from that (depending upon the complexity of the product) two weeks. Going backwards from THAT, you need a sales page to be live. Going backwards from that, you need

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED:

to draft a sales page, give it to your web designer or VA, test it, etc.

Sales page Thank-you page

Here’s what that looks like in English. :)

Autoresponder

April 1 - Draft sales page, making sure you include things like

Autoresponder email (this usually contains the same information as the thank-you page)

features, bonuses, early bird pricing, guarantee.

Product set up in shopping cart

April 15 - Sales page, thank you page, autoresponder,

Pay button created (especially if you’re using PayPal) Determine how the product gets delivered. If electronically,

do you need a download page or a digital download in your shopping cart? If physically, do you need to connect your order notifications to your fulfillment system?

Do you want to include a follow-up, stay-in-touch system?

This could include an eCourse or just a three-email checkin series… because you really DO want people to use your product.

Solo emails during the two-week marketing campaign. You want at least three, and some people send five to seven.

Social media updates across the board (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, YouTube)

Emails and social media for JV partners and/or affiliates

pain points, benefits, social proof, responses to objections,

Work backwards. Start at the end: when do you want to launch the product? Meaning... when do people get your product in their happy little hands? That date informs everything, including product development (because you have to know when the product needs to be completed!). Once you have the launch date, keep going backwards from there. I usually plan on a four-week

autoresponder email, shopping cart are all set up and ready to go, after having been tested. Begin drafting solo emails and social media updates for the upcoming marketing campaign. April 16 - Two-week marketing campaign starts, with early bird discounts and/or bonuses deadlines, social media, solo emails, JV partners. April 30 - Marketing campaign ends, and you have money in your pocket.

Now, if your marketing campaign includes a free preview teleclass or webinar, then add another two weeks.... because you’re marketing the preview teleclass (with a registration page and all its back-end) separately, and THEN you have to go into marketing the product from that teleclass.

It’s a lot of details, yes, but with planning and breaking down a launch into its parts, it’s just as manageable as creating that new product. You just have to build the marketing campaign so they’ll come.

DAWN GOLDBERG

has been working with writing and the writing process all her life, from teaching English to working with companies to improve their communications and marketing materials. As an online business manager, she creates systems, procedures, and, oh yes, lots of marketing material for her clients. Her soul purpose is to help entrepreneurs unleash their authentic selves into their businesses through their words. She created the Writing From Your Soul System to help business owners connect more powerfully, reach more people, and make a difference. To learn more about Writing From Your Soul, visit www.WritingFromYourSoul.com.

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 31

STRATEGY

10 TIPS TO SAVE & WITH ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES, TOOLS & RESOURCES FOR THE BUSY ENTREPRENEUR!

BY LEIGH FOWLER | IMAGE COURTESY OF STUART MILES / FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

he key to success in online marketing is to have a plan. Having a plan is the quickest, fastest way to get results from your efforts without wasting time or money on pointless activities. So…what other activities save you time and money in the long run?

01 START WITH THE OBJECTIVES It’s important to be really clear about what you want online marketing to do for your business before you even get started. This will help your status updates be clear, effective and purposeful from the very beginning. In fact, your clarity will also help your followers identify if they want what you are promoting! Some common objectives that people set for their online marketing initiatives include: Increase site traffic Improve brand awareness Build community around their brand

Engage people with their brand Inspire their fans

02 REPURPOSE CONTENT – DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL

Everyone takes in content in different formats – some prefer bite-sized tidbits (via Twitter) over the full-fledged article, (blog) versus others who enjoy conversing and sharing content so they can discuss it with their friends and colleagues (Facebook). It’s okay to repurpose content and distribute it across your different marketing channels in different formats, including photos.

03 OPTIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM SETUPS

Most social platforms are set up for you to optimize the effectiveness of your profile set-up so that you can really get the most traction out your page. They update the features and benefits from time to time. You may have set up your

LEIGH FOWLER

provides online marketing strategies, management

solutions and maintenance packages to authors, coaches and entrepreneurs so that they can take their online marketing to the next level, with confidence. She’s worked for authors like Tosca Reno, Jack LaLanne, Robert Kennedy and Cecily Knobler, and brands like Oxygen, Clean Eating, The Eat-Clean Diet® and MuscleMag. She offers FREE strategy sessions to help business owners get past the barriers and obstacles that get in their way as they extend their brands online: www.risemediadesign.com/2014Sessions

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STRATEGY social platforms in a hurry originally, most of us have – so it’s important to go back and look at them again from time to time. Make sure your profile is optimized with current and helpful information to guide customers to your website and products.

04 MAINTAIN A STYLE GUIDE FOR ONLINE MARKETING

Imagine having written and published a book and then your social media coordinator promotes that book but spells the title incorrectly? Can you imagine how horrified you would be? Avoid this costly mistake by preparing a style guide (or operations manual) for online marketing to maintain consistent branding messages, keywords, and calls to actions across all platforms. This is especially important as your team grows – you must be able to hand this manual off to anybody, and be confident that they can continue with the same tone and feel of your marketing and key messages.

05 KNOW YOUR NUMBERS! If you don’t already have it installed on your website, I suggest you download Google Analytics and review your results regularly. If you do have a search bar installed on your website, you can look up what the top searches are. Google Analytics will also tell you how to find out what your top content pages are, which explains what your consumers and potential customers are gravitating towards and more specifically, what topics, what content pieces, and what sections appeal to them most.

06 HAVE A SCHEDULE Produce a schedule. You want to teach and train your audience on what to expect from you, and you want to be consistent with that. This keeps them coming back for more! If you’re posting regularly or if you’re blogging, they know they can come back in a couple days and you’ll have some new posts up there. So be really clear about what your fan base can expect from you and they’ll be more loyal to your brand.

07 POST-DATE YOUR POSTS, BLOGS AND NEWSLETTERS

You may be under the impression that you have to update your social media platforms daily (or multiple-times a day). This is simply not the case. Use post-dating schedulers like Pluggio, Post Planner, Hootsuite or even Facebook scheduler so that you can update your social media channels once or twice a week instead of on a daily basis.

08 MAXIMIZE YOUR WEB PAGES AND OPT-INS

You can spend all your time and money on social media or online marketing, but if you don’t have a website that allows you to connect with your visitors repeatedly, then your efforts are going to be wasted. People optimize their opt-in pages or copy by guiding visitors with call-to-actions, benefits and a clear definition of what they are opting into. This way the relationship can continue via newsletter updates and future touch points (like Facebook, Twitter, Blog posts, etc.).

09 STAY CONNECTED Stay abreast of and stay connected to online marketing sites so that when you’re making decisions about your online marketing they’re backed up by the current news and trends happening on those platforms. There are a few that I recommend, but there are tons of good ones out there (and now we have Online Marketing Manager Magazine!). Some of my favourites include www.SocialMediaExaminer.com, www.Mashable.com and www.DigitalTrends.com.

10 HAVE A PLAN This is probably the most important piece of the puzzle – it’s all about having and putting the plan together so that you’re consistent, on brand and strategic about your posts. It’s about taking the tips above and putting them all together in one cohesive strategy. As they say, fail to plan, plan to fail!

CLICK AD TO VIEW WEBSITE

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STRATEGY

7 GREAT

INTERNET MARKETING TIPS

FOR

new year is upon us, and new internet marketing opportunities are coming with it. Follow these 7 tips to stay up-to-speed in 2014:

BY PAM ANN AUNGST

02 SET A SOCIAL ADVERTISING BUDGET.

01 MARKET SMARTER, NOT HARDER. There are now tons of ways to market your business online, but just because you can do them all doesn’t mean you should. Be smart and choose to be in the online places that your target market is. If you sell golf tours to people ages 55 and up, Tumblr and Instagram are not where you need to be. LinkedIn is more likely to be a good use of your time and internet marketing dollars in that case. Visit www.Quantcast.com to find out the user base demographics for popular social networking sites.

As soon as there were enough television sets in homes, advertisers jumped on the opportunity to reach a huge new audience, and TV commercials became a way of life. Well, that moment is here for social media. Many businesses feel

PAM ANN AUNGST,

M.B.A., President of Pam Ann Marketing, LLC, is widely recognized as an expert in search engine optimization (SEO). A self-proclaimed “geek”, Pam began studying computer programming at 6 years old, started creating websites in 1997 and has been working professionally in the field of e-commerce since 2005. Referred to by Sprout Social as a “Twitter Success Story,” she harnessed the power of social media to launch her own agency in 2011. Pam has been interviewed by publications such as Internet Retailer magazine, regularly publishes articles in top internet marketing news sources, and speaks on topics such as SEO and social media. Learn more at www.pamannmarketing.com

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STRATEGY they shouldn’t have to pay for exposure on social networking sites, since such exposure used to be free. Well, television programming used to be free as well, but the days of picking up a signal on rabbit-ear TV sets are over, and so are the days of free social media exposure for businesses. If a company must pay to broadcast a television commercial to millions of people, then why should the same exposure be free on social networking sites? It shouldn’t be, and it isn’t anymore. Be realistic, get over it, and set a social advertising budget. [Tweet this!] What IS different between social advertising and television advertising is the cost: It is WAY more affordable to reach a million people via a social ad than a TV ad. Take advantage of this before that changes as well.

03 ANIMAL-PROOF YOUR SEO.

04 DON’T IGNORE GOOGLE PLUS.

I know, I know… “ghost town” comes to mind. And as far as social activity goes – yeah, maybe Google Plus is a ghost town in comparison to the likes of Facebook and Twitter. But last I checked Google was still the source of more than 5 billion searches per day and guess what? Google Plus IS Google! If you care about getting found in Google, then you need to care about Google Plus. [Tweet this!] Google continues to increase the amount of impact that Google Plus activity has on search results, so at the very least, set up your Google Plus Authorship and start building up your circles.

Google assigns “pet names” (pun intended) to their major algorithm updates, i.e. Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird. These big changes often devastate the rankings and search engine traffic for even big businesses like JC Penney, if they have been using SEO tactics or consultants that break Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Some SEO tactics, especially certain link-building tactics, that used to be okay with Google are not okay anymore. If your site is associated with any of these tactics, it will suffer at some point if it hasn’t already. 2014 will bring more animal-themed traffic destroyers, so be proactive and ensure that your SEO is up to par with the current Webmaster Guildelines.

05 PAY EVEN MORE ATTENTION TO GOOGLE PLUS.

Matt Cutts of Google, a.k.a. “The Horse” Establishing Authorship and building up your circles is only the bare minimum for the amount of attention that needs to be paid to Google Plus. One of 2014’s SEO trends is going to

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ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 35

STRATEGY be “author rank”. Now that a lot of people have caught on to the ranking benefits of Google Authorship, Google now needs a ranking system to apply within that big pool of verified authors. Straight from the horse’s mouth (I love referring to Matt Cutts as “the horse”): “It’s not just going to be about markup, it’s going to be about the quality of the authorship.” Exactly what factors Google is going to look at to determine the quality of an author is not yet known, but it’s probably pretty safe to assume that it’s going to include the quantity, quality, and relevancy of your connections, as well as the amount of Google Plus activity your articles receive (+1s, comments, and reshares).

In either case, you’ll want to fill out your business info 100% and then start posting status updates and soliciting reviews. This will help you get found on the first page of REGULAR Google searches (not just Google Plus searches) when someone performs a regionally-based search for your type of business.

07 DEFINE YOUR “ONLINE SALES FUNNEL.”

06 UPGRADE YOUR GOOGLE MAPS LISTING TO A GOOGLE PLUS BUSINESS PAGE. (YES, MORE GOOGLE PLUS STUFF.)

Not everyone is ready to become a customer, or even contact you, the moment they first land on your website. If “Contact Us” is the only call to action on your site, think again. [Tweet this!]

If you don’t already have a Google Plus Business Page, then log into www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/ and click on “Start Now” under “Google+ Page”. If you do already have one, and it was created as a “Local” page, then look for the opportunity to merge them (in the Google Places dashboard).

Many businesses have an online sales cycle that requires multiple steps to convert a web visitor to a lead. Perhaps a first-time visitor who found your site via a blog post isn’t ready to contact you, but would be ready and willing to register to download a bigger piece of content, such as a whitepaper or PDF guide. Then some gentle email marketing can convince them to attend a webinar, where they have an opportunity to experience your company’s subject matter expertise to the point where they’re convinced that you can help them. That funnel, blog reader -> downloader, -> email subscriber -> webinar attendee -> lead/customer, is a lot longer than “Contact Us NOW!” but a heck of a lot more effective.

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SEO

Google Analytics

Updates You Need to Know About What You Do...

ENHANCED SEGMENTATION

THE DASHBOARD

DOUBLECLICK CAMPAIGN MANAGER INTEGRATION

BY PAM IVEY

oogle has updated their analytics many times during 2013, by some estimates, more than 70 launches have happened in 2013 alone. This is a lot of change to keep up with. If you regularly use Google Analytics, then you probably noticed some changes each time you logged in. If it’s been a while, the changes might be overwhelming you. Let’s take a look at the most important changes and how they will affect your business going forward.

Traffic sources becomes acquisitions, and in the overview screen you can see the primary traffic source categories and behavior. In addition, you can customize your dashboard however you want. You can use the starter dashboard or you can create your own dashboard that shows the metrics at-aglance that you want to show.

TAG MANAGER This tool allows you to organize your tracking tags all in one spot. You’ll put the code into your site, and as you create new tags, they automatically appear in the interface. This is very useful if you use or plan to use Google Adwords in the future.

PRIVATE SEARCH This change is the bane of a content marketer’s existence. If you’ve logged in lately, you’ll see “not provided” shows up instead of organic keywords used to find your page. This is because Google wants to get away from organic search being your main focus. They want to focus more on Adwords.

ENHANCED LINK ATTRIBUTION The in-page overlay will allow you to see which links on your site are getting the most traffic and action. You’ll have to change the code on your site, but once you do you’ll be able to get more information than you could before allowing you to understand better how each page and each link is working for your business. You can find this feature in Property Settings.

LINK WEBMASTER TOOLS WITH ANALYTICS You need to link your Adwords and Analytics accounts together manually. To do it, you just click Set up Webmaster Tools Data Sharing and Google guides you through the process. Once you tie the two together you’ll be able to gather actionable data that will help you improve your conversions like never before.

This update will allow you to further segment your audience and visitors by many different criteria including, paid traffic, conversions, and more. This will help marketers measure and understand individual users actions more than in the past. You can also build your own segments so that you can improve your site using the data that you want to use.

This integration is going to allow marketers to see important information such as user demographics inside your analytics reports. You’ll be able to see how display advertising is working inside your analytics dashboard. The information gathered will help marketers create better ad campaigns than ever before. Finally, if you really want to learn more about Google Analytics, you can now attend Google Analytics Academy. The course will teach you a lot of what you need to know to make the most of Google Analytics for your business in six self-study units.

onlinemarketing manager Magazine is a rich resource to help online marketing consultants and other service providers step into their power with confidence and know-how. Do you have a story that demonstrates a way forward and can be just the information or insight they need when they reach roadblocks or feel like giving up on their business dreams?

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SEO

GOOGLE ALGORITHM CHANGES ARE INEVITABLE:

HOW NOT TO CARE

t’s important for marketers to remember why search engines exist. They do not exist to help you make more money. They do not exist for you at all. Search engines exist to return relevant results to the consumer who is searching. Period. Naturally all search engines including Google, will continually update their technology to enable them to get better and better at returning useful results to their users. Thank goodness, because this helps above board business owners and honest marketers do a better job too. So, in that vein there are a few things you can do right now to improve your website and let go of worrying about algorithm changes forever.

01 REMOVE DUPLICATE CONTENT Whether you invested in cheap PLR, (that you did not edit) posted duplicate guests posts, or if you have content you also posted to article marketing sites, it’s time to remove that content. If you have anything on your site that is too similar to another site, you’ll pay the price. You need to add unique value to your customer.

02 REMOVE HARMFUL LINKS It wasn’t so long ago that getting inbound links to your site, no matter the method was a sure fire way to move your search results to the top. Even honest marketers indulged in dubious methods to get links. If you have some links that are questionable out there, and you’ll know by the type of traffic you get from them, ask them to be removed. You may need to pay a fee, but it’ll be worth it.

03 UNDERSTAND KEYWORDS BETTER

BY PAM IVEY

05 INVEST IN RESPONSIVE DESIGN The time is up, the warnings are done, you must have a responsive website today. Everything you do must be responsive. This means that your emails, your landing pages, your websites and even your ordering process needs to be usable on any device your audience wants to use.

06 UPDATE CONSISTENTLY WITH RELEVANT INFORMATION

The truth is, the more you update your website with relevant information for your audience the better. You will need to experiment with what level of interaction and information your particular audience prefers but search engines like to be fed often, but only if it’s good food. Think gourmet, not fast food.

07 PROVIDE VALUE TO YOUR CONSUMER If your customer sees no value in what you’re offering, neither will the search engines. Even if the search engines don’t see value in what you’re offering, your customers still will. Therefore, the customer should always win when balancing how and what you provide your customers. Finally, engage with your customers. The more time users spend on your site, the higher you’ll rank with Google. Google sees high engagement as a priority and proof that you are offering value. Remember, Google’s main job is to return relevant search results to their customers. They have no other job. Google owes nothing to you or your business. They only owe it to their users to return the most accurate, authoritative, and useful results. Become those and you’ll win the game no matter how often Google changes their algorithm.

Most savvy marketers probably knew that too many keywords was a dubious practice for some time now. But, some of you may have held on to the old ways. Yes, you want to keep using keywords, but you don’t to make it obvious. Instead, write for your audience, not search engines.

04 IMPROVE YOUR NAVIGATION The acronym K.I.S.S, comes to mind when one speaks about navigation. The more simple it is, and the easier it is for your consumer to find all of your information it just makes sense that it’s also easier for the search engines to index your site by crawling even deeper. 38 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

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7 STRATEGY

SUCCESS TIPS FOR MOBILE MARKETERS BY PAM IVEY

obile marketing is an important part of many marketing campaigns. The reason is simple: Mobile devices are outselling personal computers. Due to this fact it’s imperative that marketers get on board with mobile marketing, but it’s also important that if you’re going to engage in mobile marketing that you understand how to be successful.

01 IT

SHOULD BE SIMPLE Many marketers love pretty pictures and graphics, and while they do help in some cases move your consumer toward buying, placement is very important. Don’t put graphics at the top of your mobile marketing messages, and keep it simple by remembering that less is more.

02 MESSAGES POINT

NEED TO BE SHORT & TO THE

Much like Twitter, mobile marketing needs to be short and to the point. You want to induce action from your words, so use them wisely. When you write a sentence, double check it for regency, and always use an active voice. You don’t need fancy graphics to get your message across. Short and to the point wins in mobile marketing.

03 REMEMBER THAT MOBILE MEANS LOCAL

While there is some disagreement among researchers about how many mobile based searches are for local businesses, it’s probably very high. Logically, it makes sense because of the advent of GPS, and the ability

to find something useful on the go. This doesn’t mean that if you’re not a local business you can’t use mobile search successfully, but it does mean if you do have local content you can leverage that to get higher results and more conversions.

04 MOBILE

MARKETING IS TIME SENSITIVE

Consumers searching on their mobile device are going to make a decision about what to do now. PC searches can often take place over a week’s time before a buying choice is made, while the typical mobile searcher makes a choice within an hour of searching.

05 MOBILE SEARCHES ARE HIGHLY FOCUSED

Mobile searchers typically know exactly what they want to find, while often PC searchers aren’t as serious or focused and can get easily distracted. Due to the highly focused nature you may need to use a larger variety of potential keywords so that your audience can find you, right now.

06 KEEP

IT SHARABLE

By definition mobile marketing is social. Most people are accessing the information via their smart phones, which are used to be social. Everyone loves to share information with others when it’s simple and easy to do. Use consistent, clean, and understandable URL structures and technology that makes it easy for your audience to share and engage.

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STRATEGY 07

KEEP IT MISTAKE PROOF Small keys, mean mistakes are made. While you do not want to use common misspellings for PC based search results, you do want to use them for your mobile marketing campaigns. Which misspellings you’ll chose to use depends on your market. You may have to research this further. You can start with keywords you use for PC based search, and then work from there to increase the search terms for mobile marketing.

Finally, don’t bother with the expense or trouble of a mobile marketing campaign if your main website isn’t going to be mobile-friendly and responsive. Go through the motions as if you’re the customer. How will you feel if you click through and respond to a marketing message only to be left out in the cold because you can’t access, or comfortably read, or use the accompanying website?

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STRATEGY

3 KEYS

TO EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BY PAM IVEY

eing a successful project manager isn’t just about the tools you use to organize the project. A project manager’s job is to keep the project on track and works to coordinate all aspects of the project. A project manager needs to have good communication skills, be organized, pay attention to details, and understand expectations consumers have of deliverables in order to guide the project successful completion. No matter what kind of project you are managing, it’s important to understand what really matters most about each project. There are three key attributes to effective project management. They are understanding the deliverables, creating a good plan and implementing the plan.

01 CLEARLY DEFINE THE DELIVERABLES This is just another way of defining the outcome you expect from the project. What product, solution, service, or idea are you expected to present at the end of the project? For instance, if you are managing a project to create an employee handbook, your deliverable is the final finished and complete handbook in all the forms you’ve decided upon. By focusing on outcomes you take the attention off activities that get you nowhere. By placing your focus on the deliverables or outcome of the project you can put your efforts where they matter most. Make a detailed list of what constitutes a finished product, service, or idea. Be very specific. Denote the form in which the deliverable should be (Word, PDF, an app, etc...), how long it should be, how big it should be, and everything that it should include. Going back to the employee handbook, you might create an outline of what should be included, and decide what forms it will be presented to the employees (the audience). Perhaps you’ll have it printed, post it on the intranet, and offer it via presentation during a luncheon. Be clear, and describe in detail what the finished product is and when the due date is.

02 CREATE STEPS TO REALIZE THE DELIVERABLES

In order to create steps and a plan to produce the deliverables it’s important to be able to visualize what the finished project looks like. The steps you went through above to define the deliverables will help you visualize a finished product. Then, using the description of the finished product you can work backwards from the due date, choosing to chunk the project into smaller deliverables and assign it to those who will handle that task. For instance, if you plan to print the employee handbook, it’ll need to be in some sort of finished form, likely PDF, for the printer to finish their job. The words have to be created, before someone can do the graphic art inside. The formatting and editing can’t be done until everything else is done and so forth. Each person who is part of the project will have their own due dates based on the amount of control and influence they have over the finished product. By identifying smaller steps and bite sized actions that can be taken, you’ll create a process that will help you realize your goal.

03 FOLLOW THE STEPS Finally, it’s essential to follow the steps you’ve created to realize a successful outcome. But it’s also essential to realize that sometimes as you’re doing the steps you’ll notice a step is out of place, it’s okay to redefine steps and reassign them as you move forward and understand more about what the project takes to see it to completion. There might be hangups in production at some point with the art department, or editing, and that will put everyone else behind a bit, but it’s not the end of the world. By creating the steps needed to finish the project successfully you’ll identify things that can be done simultaneously as well as things that need to be done in a specific order. The important thing to do is oversee the project steps in such a way that you’ll know where to start, and what constitutes finished. Project management is all about identifying, planning and implementing your plan to reach the goal you identified. One step feeds off the other until you’re finally done.

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STRATEGY

EARN FIVE TIMES MORE FOR YOUR SERVICES WITHOUT WORKING HARDER

BY ANGELA WILLS | IMAGE COURTESY OF PONG / FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

our time is a limited commodity. Once it’s gone there’s simply no getting it back.

If you provide services to small business owners it’s very likely you work hard for your money. However, if you want to stop trading all the hours in your day for dollars, you must find ways to work smarter.

Use Templates You’ll want to create a template for anything in your business that requires the same or a very similar format each time. Here are some good examples of the types of projects you can use templates with to cut your work-time down drastically:

Blog Posts

In this article I’ve got a few tips for ways to multiply your output so you can earn more and work less.

Sales pages Email Newsletters

Create Systems and Checklists If you haven’t done so yet now is the time to create systems and checklists for your business. Start tracking everything you do for your own business and for your clients businesses. Create systems for yourself and also offer this as an add-on service for your clients. For popular services your documented systems also have the potential to be turned into an information product you can sell. Offer to create systems for your clients to add extra value to the relationship. For services you do regularly you can easily create a main system for your business and then customize that to each client who requires it for their own business.

Website Pages (IE. About, Contact, FAQ, etc.)

Affiliate Program Content (IE. Affiliate Info Page, Affiliate welcome emails, etc.)

Opt-In Pages (IE. Freebie Offer, Webinar Sign up, etc.) Product Download Pages

Outsource Many service providers are stuck in the DIY mode and believe they must keep the work to themselves in order to keep the quality at a level they expect for their clients. While this is a noble reason for not yet outsourcing you are actually doing your clients a disservice by not leveraging the help of others.

ANGELA WILLS is passionate about helping online business owners

market their business smarter. She’s helped thousands of small business owners with their websites, graphics, email marketing and more through her online courses and coaching programs. Angela quit her full-time job in 2007 to become a full-time Virtual Assistant and has been involved in the industry ever since. She’s dedicated to helping VAs and service business owners provide the highest quality services to their clients while building a business that doesn’t wear them out! Angela’s latest business venture, Star VA, provides affordable checklists, templates and materials for Virtual Assistants to use in their business and for their clients. Get a free sample package by signing up for her email list at www.StarVA.com

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STRATEGY As your business grows you won’t be able to keep up a fast turn-around time as your number of clients and their demands grow. Why not outsource so you can work fast and help your clients achieve their goals quickly. The more successful they become, the more work they’ll want to hand over to you. Here are some ideas on the kind of work you can outsource to other service providers while working with your clients:

Website Design Website Technical Issues Graphics Design Writing These types of services are readily and easily outsourced if you find the right person who does great work.

Batch Your Work It’s essential to your productivity that you batch your work. Every time you look at work from a particular client your mindset changes to think about that client and their needs. It takes time to switch that mindset back to another project or client. If you are constantly taking time to switch from one client to another during the day you are wasting time! By batching your work you can read and answer emails, complete projects and plan your next steps with your client all at once. This will easily shave hours of your week.

ADVERTISE onlinemarketing manager Magazine

Promote Affiliate Programs A final way to earn more from your service business is to start integrating affiliate offers into your work. This can (and should) come in a very natural and non-intrusive way. For example, if you work with clients to build websites or blogs then you should be recommending a hosting company to them. I’ve done this for years with my own clients and recommend bluehost to them because it is a fantastic company. It is also very easy for my clients to sign up for bluehost as there are no upsells or confusing steps to take. Other examples of programs you can promote to your businessrelated clients would be email software programs (such as Aweber), shopping cart programs (many use Infusionsoft), project management programs (my favourite is Basecamp) and many more. See the opportunities here? Think especially of programs that pay a recurring monthly payment (such as Aweber or Basecamp) so that you do the work once and continue to get paid again and again.

Earning More is Easy to do Earning up to five times more for the same work isn’t all that hard. It is, however, something you must be focused and determined to achieve. It won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen without effort. Don’t wait! Start making concentrated steps to achieve more from your time. Keep consistent in your efforts and see how much more you can earn without taking more hours from your day. Good luck!

Reach Your Target Audience

Affordably

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STRATEGY

HOW TO

IMPROVE YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING

RESULTS BY PAM IVEY | IMAGE COURTESY OF STUART MILES / FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

very marketer wants to know how to improve their digital marketing results. After all, marketing is a results driven activity. The very best way to improve your digital marketing is to look at your metrics. Yes, it all comes down to data and analytics. Without data and analytics it’s hard to know where you stand in terms of success or failure. As they say, nothing is done until the paperwork is done. In marketing, nothing is done until the data is analyzed.

Collect Consumer Intelligence Today the technology exists to gather consumer intelligence in real time. As you gather the data you can make changes to your marketing materials as needed, thus improving even midstream any marketing campaign. Look at how headlines affect open rates for email marketing, look at how a particular color on a landing page affects conversion, look at how social media is affecting conversions. You can even survey your audience directly via polls, and questionnaires, using an all of the above approach to collect real time data as well as historical data and then analyze the results to make the most of marketing right now.

Know When & How Your Customers Want Information Every audience has a different way they like to consume information. But, most consume information in multiple ways just at different times during the day. For instance your audience might prefer to consume your information via social media in the morning, email during the work day, and on your website at night. You’ll need to look at the data to make the best choices of when and where to send your marketing messages. Due to the fact that consumers are using several devices to access information it’s imperative that a savvy marketer knows when and where so their messages can be most effective.

Don’t Just Study the Data – Act On It. Once you collect all the data, then it’s time to act on the data and leverage it to focus your marketing. Perhaps you discovered during the collection of data that video gets twice the clicks and 1/4 more conversions than other forms of marketing such as text blog posts. Don’t stop sending out blog posts, but double your efforts on video. Use the data you gather to your advantage by being smart about doing more of what is working. Likewise, if you realize an effort is not producing ROI that’s worth the effort, tweak it, experiment, or stop doing it.

Be Prepared to Quantity & Explain ROI Smart marketers need to be able to present to clients facts and figures that demonstrate return on investment. The more you can quantify results, the more business leaders will be willing to invest in your efforts. Your services become a profit center instead of an expense. You just need to know how to prove it and be very specific in your wording and documentation of return on investment for your clients. Finally, remember that all marketing revolves around the consumer not the product. Consumers care what’s in it for them, as a marketing manager, or marketer it’s important to understand the difference and be able to demonstrate to your customer the results in a way that they understand while also serving your customer’s market in a way that they understand and can relate.

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SEO

AIDAS MARKETING

101

MODEL

BY PAM IVEY

his is a marketing model that is attributed to E. St. Elmo Lewis due to an article he wrote in reference to three principles that advertising should conform to. Which were to attract the customer, interest the customer and then convince the customer. Over the years, the three principles became five, now known under the acronym AIDAS. This very important marketing model can help you improve your campaigns exponentially.

you achieve this by remembering that your audience cares more about what’s in it for them than what it does for you. They don’t care about that. What’s in it for them, benefits over features. Always. You’re going to save them time, or help them lose weight. You’re not going to give them an application or a diet pill.

Attention/Awareness

For your marketing campaign to be successful and convert interested parties who desire what you have you must convince them to take action. To click through, to sign up, to share, to respond, to buy now. Each marketing message has its own goals, and your call to action (CTA) should be very clear as to what you want the action to be. You need to know the goal before creating the campaign or the CTA.

Any marketing campaign must get the attention of its audience. You must understand how to get the attention of your target audience and bring awareness to them of your produces and /or services. There are a variety of methods to do this from TV Ads, Internet Ads, eMail ads, Blogging, Book Publishing, Interviews and more. One key and rule of thumb when trying to attract attention is to use compelling headlines that make the reader want to learn more.

Interest Once you catch your audience’s attention then it’s imperative on you to also create interest in them to keep reading. You can do that by giving them special and individual and personalized information about the benefits of your products and / or services and how it will help them solve their problems. Stay focused on your audience’s needs. Take some time to learn about the Rhetorical Triangle and it will help you formulate clearer marketing messages that get results.

Desire The copy you use will also create desire within your audience to own the product or get the service. As mentioned above,

Action

Satisfaction Finally, part of good marketing is that you please the customer. Your job doesn’t end when they buy your products or services. Remember that it can cost more to obtain one customer than it does to retain 10. Always under promise and over deliver and you will pretty much guarantee that most of your audience who follows your call to action will be satisfied. Give just a little bit more than the advertisement or marketing message claimed and your audience will be more than thrilled. If you use the AIDAS marketing model to help you with your marketing messages it will help you check off each aspect you should cover in each of your messages. Your audience will be more motivated than ever before as you move through the different elements of the AIDAS marketing model.

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STRATEGY

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER ONLINE BUSINESS MANAGER

– WHAT THE HECK IS THE DIFFERENCE? BY TIFFANY JOHNSON, ONLINEBUSINESSMANAGER.COM

re you an Online Marketing Manager (OMM) an Online Business Manager (OBM) or some variation of both? Does it really matter as long as the client is getting what they want? I dare say it does… and here is why – both are necessary for a growing business and yet quite often one will suffer for the other. If marketing is the sole focus then operations can suffer, if operations are the focus then marketing could become difficult to keep up with. What I would like to do is clarify between the roles, but not only the roles of the OMM and the OBM but also the stage of business at which each are needed.

So let’s start with the Online Business Manager role: As the OBM you are in charge of the overall running of the business, including Project Management, Operations Management, Team Management and Metrics. The focus of the OBM is to ensure that stuff is getting done – in all areas of the business including marketing activities, however the OBM is focused on the bigger picture of the business and not specific to marketing alone. The OBM thrives on creating calm out of chaos. They love to take an idea and lay out all the steps to make it happen. They love to work with a team of amazing people to get stuff done. They enjoy putting systems in place to automate the ongoing activities of the

TIFFANY JOHNSON

is a seasoned Online Business Manager who is passionate about supporting Online Business Managers in LIVING their success dream. She excels in team development, systems/process management and project leadership. As an entrepreneur herself, she understands the challenges and successes of running, maintaining and developing a strong foundational business. Tiffany believes fully her success lies only in the success of the businesses she serves. To learn more, visit www.ibizmadeeasy.com.

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STRATEGY business and to ensure that everything is working smoothly. The OBM is purposeful in building a solid framework for the entire business to ensure it will be strong regardless and can support the ongoing growth with minimal hiccups.

and getting clients. What they really need at this time is a good business coach or strategist and great virtual assistant to do the work. If they are doing a big launch or other type of promotion they may look at hiring an OMM for a short period around that particular product or offering. At this point they would not need an OBM. Startup can be any business up to the gross revenue of $150K

At the next stage of business $150K+ a business owner may start looking for more specialized help with both the operations and marketing, depending on the personal strengths and knowledge of the business owner, either the OBM or the OMM could plug in and really support the client to go to the next level. If it’s the OBM, the person will likely wear the hat of both operations and marketing for a time period until the business grows to sustain both positions. It is important for the OBM at this stage to keep the focus on marketing activities as needed, and to make suggestions around hiring an OMM when a big project, launch, or event is on the horizon.

At the 350K+ stage of business, the business would likely be best served by both an OBM and an OMM working together to ensure the continued growth and sustainability of the business. This is a sweet spot where quantum leaps can happen in a way that will allow a business to enjoy rapid revenue growth ;-)

Let’s look at the Online Marketing Manager’s role: The lifeblood of any business is marketing – without it there simply is no business. This is where the OMM comes into play as a key driver of marketing activities and strategy. The OMM laser-focuses on how to get results in a target market, oversee the implementation and create the strategy for continued success. As the OMM, it’s your role to be on top of all the latest marketing trends, understanding the target market, what they want, what they think they want, and how to communicate it to them in way they can receive it. The OMM will be strong in strategy, decision-making and fact-finding. You thrive on the results, the numbers, the responsibility of seeing the numbers and conversions. You are quick to make a change when it is not giving you the result, you trust the testing processes and know great marketing is really about finding the right algorithm for the target you are attempting to reach. The truth is the OBM and the OMM are equally needed in a growing online business. Even desperately so… honestly, how can a business grow without marketing, how can it deliver without sound operations? Obviously, it can’t and one is not more important than the other, so how does a business owner know who they need to hire and when to hire them?

Look at these 3 points to determine which (or both) a business needs to best support growth: 01

In startup, the business owner needs to focus on the growth of the business – proving their business model

If you are interested in finding out more about how to become an Online Business Manager I would love to connect with you and discuss this highly sought after skillset and opportunity. We have a FREE OBM Starter Kit we have set up for you to ‘see’ what its all about. Simply register here to receive it: www.OnlineBusinessManager.com/freestarterkit

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ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 47

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UPCOMING EVENTS Have an event you’d like included in our list? Drop us a line with all of the details to editor@ommmagazine.com

DATES

EVENT NAME

LOCATION URL/ABOUT

March 7 - 11, 2014 SXSW Interactive Austin http://sxsw.org/interactive SOCIAL MEDIA March 11 - 13, 2014 SMX San Jose San Jose

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/ SEARCH MARKETING

March 17 - 20, 2014 Pubcon New Orleans http://www.pubcon.com/new-orleans-2014 SEARCH MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA March 18 - 19, 2014 Ad Tech Australia Sydney http://www.adtechaustralia.com/sydney/ DIGITAL MARKETING March 20 - 21, 2014 Ad Tech New Delhi New Delhi

http://india.ad-tech.com/ DIGITAL MARKETING

March 22 - 23, 2014 Warrior Event Raleigh http://warrioreventlive.com/2014/ DIGITAL MARKETING March 24 - 25, 2014 Digital Innovator’s Summit 2014 Berlin March 24 - 28, 2014

http://www.innovators-summit.com CONTENT MARKETING

Summit: The Digital Salt Lake City http://summit.adobe.com/na Marketing Conference DIGITAL MARKETING (ADOBE)

March 25 - 26, 2014 SMX Munich Munich http://smxmuenchen.de/ SEARCH MARKETING March 25 - 26, 2014 LeadsCon Las Vegas Las Vegas

http://leadscon.com/ VERTICAL MEDIA & DIRECT RESPONSE MARKETING

March 26, 2014 Digital Cream London London http://econsultancy.com/ca/events/digital-cream-london DIGITAL MARKETING March 26 - 27, 2014 Ad Tech San Francisco San Francisco http://na.ad-tech.com/sf/ DIGITAL MARKETING March 26 - 28, 2014 Social Media Marketing World San Diego March 28, 2014

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/ SOCIAL MEDIA

Reykjavik Internet Reykjavik http://www.rimc.is/en/ Marketing Conference (RIMC) DIGITAL MARKETING

March 31 - April 1, 2014 Digital Summit Phoenix Phoenix http://www.digitalsummitphoenix.com/ DIGITAL MARKETING March 31 - April 2, 2014 Content Marketing World Sydney Sydney

http://sydney.contentmarketingworld.com/ CONTENT MARKETING

March 31 - April 3, 2014 ClickZ Live New York New York (formerly SES Conference & Expo)

http://www.clickzlive.com/newyork/ SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

April 23 - 25, 2014 InfusionCon Phoenix http://www.attendicon.com/ AUTOMATION, SMALL BIZ SUCCESS 50 | ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014

April 29 - May 1, 2014 Social Media Strategies Summit Chicago

http://2014.socialmediastrategiessummit.com/chicago/ SOCIAL MEDIA

May 7, 2014 DigitalMedia Summit Toronto http://digitalmediasummit.ca/ SOCIAL MEDIA & INTERACTIVE MARKETING May 13 - 14, 2014 SMX London London http://searchmarketingexpo.com/london/ SEARCH MARKETING May 27 - 28, 2014 SMX Sydney Sydney http://searchmarketingexpo.com/go/sydney SEARCH MARKETING June 10 - 11, 2014 SMX Advanced Seattle Seattle http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/ SEARCH MARKETING June 11 - 12, 2014 Social Media Strategies Summit New York

http://2014.socialmediastrategiessummit.com/new-york-2014/ SOCIAL MEDIA

June 16 - 17, 2014 SMX Paris Paris http://smxfrance.com/ SEARCH MARKETING June 17 - 19, 2014 Internet World London http://www.internetworld.co.uk/ DIGITAL MARKETING June 18 - 19, 2014 Social Media Strategies Summit Amsterdam http://2014.socialmediastrategiessummit.com/amsterdam/ SOCIAL MEDIA June 24 - 27, 2014 Amsterdam Affiliate Conference Amsterdam http://www.igbaffiliate.com/events/amsterdamaffiliateconference/ AFFILIATE MARKETING July 8 - 9, 2014 Ad Tech Singapore Singapore http://www.ad-tech.sg/ DIGITAL MARKETING July 8 - 9, 2014 Ad Tech Kyushu Kyushu http://www.adtech-kyushu.com/en DIGITAL MARKETING July 14 - 16, 2014 MozCon Seattle http://moz.com/mozcon SEO, CONTENT, PPC, ANALYTICS, SOCIAL MEDIA August 10 - 12, 2014 Affiliate Summit East New York

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/ AFFILIATE MARKETING

Sept 8 - 11, 2014 Content Marketing World Cleveland http://www.contentmarketingworld.com CONTENT MARKETING Sept 15 - 18, 2014 Inbound Marketing Summit Boston http://www.inbound.com/ INBOUND MARKETING Sept 17 - 18, 2014 Ad Tech Tokyo Tokyo http://www.adtech-tokyo.com/en/ DIGITAL MARKETING Sept 30 - October 3, 2014 SMX East New York

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/east/ SEARCH MARKETING

October 21 - 22, 2014 Ad Tech London London http://www.ad-techlondon.co.uk/ DIGITAL MARKETING November 5 - 6, 2014 Ad Tech New York New York

http://na.ad-tech.com/ny/ DIGITAL MARKETING

November 20 - 21, 2014 SMX Las Vegas Las Vegas

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/socialmediamarketing/ SEARCH MARKETING / SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 51

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