How It Changes Internet Marketing

I recently saw a short news item on TV showing a 90-year-old woman who just got her first computer – and it was an iPad. To me this illustrates that its market reach is going to be enormous. It’s convenient, lightweight, and easy to use with its touch screen just like the iPhone. And because its capabilities extend beyond those of a cell phone, it could function as a person’s only internet connection, allowing them to update blogs, access social media sites, and enjoy a truly interactive experience.

One way this changes marketing is that optimization of web page size is going to be tricky. The internet marketer now needs to come up with a page that is equally reader-friendly on a PDA, iPad, laptop, or large PC monitor.

But the most major change occurs with eBooks. The iPad’s eBook reader provides a reading experience combined with internet access. Unlike the Kindle or other readers, a book on the iPad provides live links. If your information product references a website, for instance, that link can be live and clickable, taking the reader to the page instantly.

Apps are a big part of the iPad’s interactive features as well. Savvy business people will get to work developing an app to be offered as an information product. This increase subscribership and creates customer loyalty.

As the iPad remains on the market longer and increases in popularity, expect that more and more people will choose this product for all their online activity. This means an internet marketer needs to pay more attention to providing interesting and diverse content in order to compete with the millions of other sites vying for the consumer’s attention.

Design Elements

Opt for an understated design rather than flashy, gimicky graphics. Keep the color scheme pleasantly moderate and refrain from drawing attention to calls to action with big red, flashing letters in all caps. Of course you want visitors to notice a buy link, but do so via content rather than posting a line that resembles a Las Vegas casino marquee. Watch the use of punctuation, such as large exclamation points, too!!! Graphics are fine, but forget the flash animation and stick with images that enhance the content.

Offer Something for Free – That Isn’t Really Free

There are lots of websites that try to trick subscribers into signing up for something free – only to find out that it isn’t REALLY free. For example, offering a free product only if the visitor enters their credit card and agrees to receive monthly shipments is an underhanded marketing method. This could ultimately cause your company to develop a bad reputation and negatively affect future sales.

Instead, consider offering something like an eBook, white paper, catalog, etc. that is truly free asking only for the visitor’s name, address, and email in exchange. This is the best way to get visitors on your mailing list and then develop a relationship based on trust and recognition. Need help creating a free offer? aWay With Words can develop an informative document at a very reasonable, one-time price.

Pop-Up Messages

Automated pop-ups are a fine way to keep visitors on your site or exhort them to sign up for your mailing list, but don’t overdo it. Too many pop-ups tend to annoy visitors and could result in the opposite of what you are trying to achieve – gaining a new prospect or client. Limit this type of automated tool to just one in order to recapture potential bounces or keep a visitor from logging off the buy page. When you do get subscribers through your pop-up message, don’t spam their inboxes with too frequent messages. Once a week plus special notices is plenty.

You may want to do a bit of internet research to ensure that your site does not appear unprofessional and scammy. Take a look at some – they are easy to find – then take steps to design your pages differently so visitors see a professional, trustworthy business.

Top 10 Twitter Tips

If someone told you that you could reach more than 75 million people with your marketing message and do so absolutely free, would you believe it? Sound too good to be true?

The fact is that such a marketing venue does exist and it’s the social networking phenomenon called Twitter. Started in 2006, the site has reached immense popularity in a very short period of time, witnessing a staggering 2500% growth rate during the early months of 2009. Although the number of sign-ups may have peaked last July, there are still some estimated 6.2 million new global Tweeters being added to the ranks each month. And just to put that number in perspective, that’s more than two members per second. Each day. Every day.

Let’s take a look at some demographics. For the majority of B2C businesses, the most important age range is those consumers aged 25 to 39. These are the young, up-and-coming professionals who enjoy spending money and are avid about having the newest, the best, and the fastest of consumables available on the market and Twitter’s got ’em. While there are no hard and fast statistics regarding the average age of members (because Twitter isn’t releasing them to the public), it has been estimated that the largest percentage fall into the 18 to 30 year-old age range.

Furthermore, Twitter users are more likely to be employed than unemployed and enjoy an average income of $58,000. Most Tweeters follow about 32 other users on average, although some try to keep up with thousands. The majority are female and English speaking. One thing Tweeters love to do is share information and recommend products or services.

When it comes to marketing reach, it is hard to beat Twitter. Now that you are convinced of this social networking site’s efficacy, we will share with you the top 10 tips for using Twitter to your advantage.

Tip #:1 Use Advanced Search for Reputation Management

Using the Advanced Search feature, you can create and save a query that tracks the posts mentioning your company name, or the name of a competitor. Add the name(s) in the ‘People’ section of the query screen. You may also want to check the positive or negative comments located in the ‘Attitude’ box. This is a very effective method of determining what other people are saying about your business, good or bad.
Hint: the Advanced Search feature is available at http://search.twitter.com/advanced.

Tip #2: Brand Your Company with a Custom Background

You can’t stand out from the crowd if you opt to use one of the generic backgrounds provided by Twitter. Why let that promotional space go to waste? At the very least, upload an image of your corporate logo; if you want to take it a step further, create a graphic that includes your contact information and tagline.

Hint: Access this feature by going to Settings/Design/Change Background Image.

Hint #2: If you want your image to fill the entire background behind your Tweet box, it needs to be 1280 x 1024 pixels in size.

A blog is dynamic, not static. The content needs to be updated frequently, preferably a minimum of twice a week. Not all posts need to be text; mix it up with video or audio pieces. Fresh content is what keeps visitors coming back and encourages them to become subscribers through your site’s RSS feed or sign-up form.

2. Post Content

Many blog owners post nothing more than advertisements for their company, products, or services. Who wants to read that? When it comes to your blog, content is king. Resist the urge to constantly promote your business and opt, instead, for interesting and informative content that provides a value to the reader. Don’t have any idea about what to write? Skim through the news and find a story related to your industry, then write a post that ties it in with the topic of your blog. Do include a link to the story’s source; this is good SEO and gives credit where credit is due.

3. Long and Boring Posts

This point ties in closely with mistake #2. Your goal is to offer good advice, an overview of industry news, perhaps a case study of one of your customers – anything that is pertinent, relevant, and informative. Then again, you can opt for an entertaining piece; something that makes the reader chuckle. Not sure if your content is boring? Ask someone else to read it and tell you what they think. And keep your posts to about 500 words maximum. Any longer than that, and you run the risk of losing readers before they make it to the end.

4. Mixing Business with Pleasure

A blog that represents your business needs to be professional in its form, design, and content. You do want to let your personality shine through and show visitors the person behind the company name but be careful that you don’t overdo personal information. Never discuss religion or politics. Keep news about your child’s elementary academic achievement out – but do talk up the latest industry or association award your company received. If you just can’t help but write about personal topics, start another blog; keep your business postings separate.

5. Allowing Spammy Comments

Your company’s reputation is closely related to the links on your site. Allowing spammy comments advertising where to buy Viagra not only looks bad, it has an adverse effect on your page ranking because of the outbound link to a site of questionable authority. If you have a WordPress blog, it comes with the Akismet comment spam plug-in already in place – use it! Do take the time to manually check the comments from your dashboard occasionally to ensure that a genuine comment didn’t get caught in the spam filters or vice versa.

Some business owners find it difficult to keep up with writing blog posts or delegate someone appropriate within the organization to do it. If this is a problem affecting your online marketing, contact us for a quote on keeping your blog content fresh and interesting.