"Mac or PC" Rap Music Video - Mac vs PC

Think Through Your Internet Marketing Plan

To create an effective Internet Marketing Plan for your business it is important to put some thought; specifically the who and what of your strategy.

So many businesses today jump on the internet bandwagon with no clear vision in mind. They start a blog, join a few social media sites, and buy some pay per click ads. All the while they have no idea who they are doing it for and why they are doing it. Those are the two most important starting points of any internet marketing campaign, but they are not the only ones. Here are a few tips on starting out on the right foot when marketing on the internet:

1. Find out who is benefiting from your marketing presence on the internet. The most obvious is customers and clients, but what about stakeholders, your competition, and product developers. Make a detailed list of who will benefit from your internet marketing initiatives.

2. Ask yourself what your customers, clients, stakeholders, and competition care about. What issues are affecting them that will make them constantly click on what you have to offer? If you are selling jewelry online as yourself what is the number one concern of your customers. It could be jewelry cleaning, replacement pieces, maybe even insurance. Figure out what your target audience wants.

3. Don't reinvent the wheel by starting your internet marketing campaign from scratch. Find out who in your industry has successfully used the internet to boost their sales and increase their customer service scores. Once you find them, do your own case study and figure out what works and what doesn't.

These three tips will help you pave your way to online marketing success.

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The Power of an Email Signature

Like online social media marketing, email signatures are powerful, free of charge, and can bring in more clients and customers than you could imagine, if done correctly. Nancy E Schwartz, who helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications, made an interesting point about email signatures:

If your organization has 30 employees, each of whom sends 15 emails daily outside the organization, then (assuming 250 business days) that's 112,500 business cards or ads distributed annually, at no cost. If you have 100 employees, that's 375,000 cards or ads annually.

So what exactly is an email signature? An email signature is a block of text mechanically added to the bottom of an email message, article, or forum post. It usually has five elements including your name, your professional title/position, your company's name, your phone number, and your company website url.

This is an example of a basic and appropriate email signature that provides all the details needed to direct potential clients and customers to your website...

Jane Doe
VP of Marketing
Ajax Union
p. 1-555-123-4567 ext 890
www.ajaxunion.com

However, for different businesses, and this depends on your needs, there are some other elements that can be added to spruce up your email signature including a blog feed, links to your social media spaces, images, and tag lines. For example:



A great resource to get your email signature is MyBlogLog where you can log in and go to edit you profile. You'll notice a new Email Signature tab and just fill in the details and hit get code. The instructions will help you the rest of the way.

Remember, sometimes less is more. You can always opt to leave out your fax number, email address, business address, and alternate phone numbers.

Tweet Your Way to More Customers

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service which allows users to read other users updates, called tweets. Remember that PowerPoint course you took that discussed how less bullet points is actually more? Well, the same theory applies to Twitter. It's a phenomenal way to attain more customers with fewer words and that means effective free online marketing!

But before you start tweeting there are some Twitter etiquette points that every business should practice.

1. Make sure your Twitter Profile reflects your business
Twitter has background customization options that allow you to add your business logo or color schemes to your Twitter background. The objective is to make sure your brand is identifiable across all of your social media venues. Additionally, your business blog or website URL should always be present on your Twitter page. Customers click on that link to uncover precisely who you are and if following you will be advantageous to their online experience.

2. Make Twitter known on your business blog
Your Twitter feed, a list of all your recent Twitter updates, should be present on your blog. Many customers will go to a business blog to get a better sense of the products you offer or learn more about the face of your company. This is your one chance to make a great connection! If a customer sees your Twitter feed and he or she has a Twitter account most likely they will choose to follow you; and if they don’t have a Twitter account curiosity will set in. Now you can send immediate information on coupons, company initiatives, and any other company news directly to customers.

3. Word of Mouth is still important
When attending networking events spread the word about you Twitter account and encourage possible partners to get involved. Additionally, your business card is still the most important networking tool you can use to leverage your business. Use this powerful tool to advertise your Twitter profile by adding a link to your business card right next to you email. You'd be surprised how great of a conversation starter that is to potential clients and partners.

So what are you waiting for? Tweet yourself to new customers today

What's Your Online Marketing Footprint?

With so many options on the World Wide Web including social media websites, blogs, search engine optimization techniques, social media optimization techniques, and much more, how do you determine your online marketing strategy is effective?

I call this your "online marketing footprint”. It’s just like your carbon footprint but it helps you take a look at all of your online venues and not only put them into perspective, but also decide which ones are right for your business.

So how do you assess your online marketing footprint?

Step One: Analyze
In order to analyze your online marketing footprint the best thing to do is go through all your social media venues and blogs and ask yourself a few questions.

1. Is this online footprint in line with my business goals and objectives?
2. Is this online footprint bringing lucrative leads to my website, blog, or profiles?
3. Am I just taking up space or am I actually interacting users and potential customers as well providing relevant resources?
   

Step Two: Condense
Using your analysis from step one, determine which online footprints needs to be abandoned. Every online user has jumped on a new social media site and created a profile only to find that they never go back. It’s okay to delete your account and move on. If you can't delete your account, email the site organizer or web manager and ask for them to delete it for you

Why not just abandon ship? Well, it’s important to not look "sporadic" online. Remember, strategy and planning are important characteristics of great business people and looking sporadic and unorganized on line is just as bad as looking that way in the boardroom.

Step Three: Equalize
Now it’s time to really research and find what additional footprints you are missing that could be beneficial to your online marketing plan. Every business person with an online marketing plan should have a strong presence on what I call MTF; Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. If video is an important part of your outreach then a channel on YouTube is also important.

Finally, there are the small gold mines that you have to research and determine if it’s right for you. It may be a forum, a social media site, or someone else's blog, whatever it is remember to assess the benefits first and it works for you go for it.

So what are you waiting for? Increase your online marketing effectiveness by Analyzing, Condensing and Equalizing your online footprint.