Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged email marketing
You Don't Need a Fortune to Compete Online
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
I was kinda disappointed by the ads on the Super Bowl this year. The game itself was at least competitive and fairly entertaining (for a hockey fan), but nothing really stood out as a “great” commercial. I’ve always been amazed that companies can spend so many millions of dollars on just 30 seconds of airtime. Yes, lots of people are watching. (Are they paying attention…or drinking & eating? Well, the TV is on at least.) But I questioned if there were better ways to spend the dough.
Most of the companies that buy ad time during the big game are huge consumer goods-type companies, the kind that can afford to do all sorts of “real” promotion during the year…and then tack on a big SB ad for good measure. For the other 99% of businesses, there are far more effective options for spending a million advertising dollars.
The great news is that you don’t need a huge advertising budget to spend on marketing or PR to share your ideas or your offerings anymore. The Internet has leveled the playing field for most. With great content, some well placed SEO dollars, a great viral video or some effective email list and/or social network building, small companies can compete with much larger ones.
Of course, writing the content takes both your time and expertise, or hiring a competent writer to help out. But many of the ways that content is shared online these days are completely free, like most social networks or blogging platforms.
And sure, email marketing isn’t free… but the marginal costs to reach additional people once a campaign has been created are almost nothing. So who wins or loses depends more on having a good online communications strategy, and less on having the biggest checkbook. For someone who likes rooting for the underdog, I like that.
Youth of the Nation
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
As a student of history (one of the few subjects I paid attention to during middle or high school), I have always been interested in studying the differences between different generations. I like to see how societal events like war, cultural influences or technologies influence whole groups of people. One of the most interesting groups to me is Generation Y, also called the Millennials.
There aren’t exact boundaries – for any generation – but Gen Y begins in the late 70s or early 80s, and extends out to approximately the year 2000.
What recently caught my attention was that many Millennials have stopped using words like “hello” and “goodbye” in their conversations. The reason is pretty straightforward, most of their conversations via social media, texting or chat services have no clear beginning or end, but are simply ongoing dialogues with other people.
Of course, older generations are using these same technologies, but they still tend to use these media for more traditional conversations.
I am trying to refrain from saying things like “back in my day”, maybe because this would mean admitting that I am finally getting old. However, you can’t help but notice the differences that adolescents today have from earlier generations. As I started my business last year, I reached out to a number of financial institutions (my past expertise) and began selling the virtues of online communications. During these conversations it struck me, younger consumers won’t find ATMs, online banking or bill pay to be especially convenient. Why would they – they’ve never known a world without them.
They’ve always had cell phones (mobile devices? Handheld super computers?); always had 150 channels to choose from; always had video games that look like the movies. And the list goes on.
The impact of this group of people on American business has been muted so far. Younger workers are usually the last hired and first fired, and the current recession has hit them hard. But as they gain valuable real world experience and skills, their numbers will grow within our workforce, as they become cheaper alternatives to older workers. As Gen Y begins to assume more leadership roles and responsibilities, how will you market to them? These are questions that will need answers pretty soon.
Do you think print advertising will be particularly effective with this group? How about standard radio advertising? TV?
Do you think your money will be more effectively spent in direct (snail) mail campaigns, or email marketing?
Would you rather have a great print newsletter, or online blog?
The Evolution from Technology to Content
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
I recently read an interesting article that explored the histories of two former online titans, AOL and MySpace, web companies that seemed to have the world on a string. Once the leaders of two gigantic categories, Internet Service Providers and Social Network Media, what went so wrong?
While some bad business decisions, such as the disastrous “merger of the century” between Time Warner and AOL, certainly share some of the blame, that isn’t what killed either AOL or MySpace. No, what took these companies to the brink was the outdated technology they offered to consumers.
AOL’s core business in the ’90s was dial-up Internet, which was wildly profitable then. Their groundbreaking platform was many people’s first introduction to the Internet and World Wide Web, including my own. (akl26jimbo, for those of you that have known me long enough to remember) But it seems that very quickly the introduction of Cable Internet and DSL made AOL’s technology obsolete. The tides turned quickly, and the company was too slow to respond.
MySpace had a similar experience. They were the first company to introduce social networking technology to the masses, and grew rapidly at the beginning. But their platform, while groundbreaking and innovative, was also unrefined and limited in scope. Facebook started very simply as a way for a few college campuses to connect through a social network of limited size. But with the superior technology of their basic platform, Facebook Connect and their news feed feature, it didn’t take long for Facebook to grow and then overtake MySpace, and they haven’t looked back since. In fact, Facebook continues to grow its now sizable lead by pushing the boundaries of social media technology.
The interesting thing to me is that both companies essentially conceded defeat on the technology front long ago. MySpace knows that it won’t ever catch Facebook, just as AOL knows that its day in the sun as a leading ISP won’t be coming back again. But once they recognized this, it has freed them to begin their current evolutions into content companies.
The truth is, there can only be a very select few winners in the contest to be the best “technology driven” company online. Yes, the lead can sometimes change hands, just like it did away from AOL and MySpace to the current leaders in their respective fields. But those occurrences are becoming rare, and companies such as Google have gained so much mass, brand equity and momentum that it may be years before they are supplanted in any meaningful way.
No, the way to compete now is by becoming a purveyor of content, to drive traffic by creating and sharing valuable information to your target audiences via your platform or service. Filling niche markets. Finding a group or segment who has unmet needs, and then fulfilling them. And that is what AOL and MySpace have done.
AOL bought the blog network Weblogs, publishers of Engadget, Joystiq and many other popular blogs, and began to expand their online new operations. They now employ more than 3,000 freelance writers and over 150 full time journalists. The AOL portal is still popular, and drives traffic to these many inhouse publications. They even moved their headquarters from Virginia to New York in order to help increase their advertising revenues.
MySpace decided to become a home for music and celebrity content. MySpace is no longer about networking with friends, but focused on entertainment channels such as MySpace Music or MySpace Music Video. Perhaps the biggest sign that they’re refocusing on content, though, is the news that MySpace may soon begin to offer Facebook Connect functionality sometime in early 2010. That certainly would have never happened if MySpace still thought they could beat Facebook in social networking technology!
So these companies, and many others, have realized that that trying to attract audiences with better technology is now a losing proposition, and by creating lots and lots of great content they can still drive traffic to their portals and platforms, and remain relevant. Which is yet another reason that the future for online content creation is so bright.