Develop your online marketing plan (Part 2)

By Becky McCray.. Article from www.jump.com: JumpUp is a free website and community from Intuit that helps new businesses get up and running successfully. View part 1 of this article.

Online Presence tools:

Lots of different tools exist to build a presence online and more are created everyday. How do you keep up? By understanding the basic types of tools, and by picking only those that fit best with your business and customers.

1. Local listings: Most search engines maintain a local section with business listings. Most of those will allow you to fill in your business info, including hours, directions, etc. These are easy to get set up. Local review sites like Yelp are a bit different. They allow or encourage people to review your business. Make sure you give them updated info on your business, but don't be tempted to do your own review! A smarter tactic is to encourage your loyalists to review you.

2. Websites: When you create your own website, it's your job to keep it up to date and interesting. Customers now expect you to have some interactivity built in. Can you let customers upload stories, reviews, suggestions, photos? Can they interact with other users? Can they email you? Comment on your articles? Offer tips of their own? Tools exist for all of these, so choose at least a few to use.

3. Blogs: Blogs are like an online newsletter made into a conversation. They can be stand alone or part of your website. They can also be you on your own or part of a regional or topical group blog.

4. Guides: These tools offer many different resources around a particular topic. Some will let you set up your own guide, like Squidoo's lenses. Some have existing guides that you can submit your info to, like About and the thousands of directory sites.

5. Audio: On your own site, you can use audio to introduce yourself, teach about your products, share a story or testimonial, or lead an audio tour. By using a service like BlogTalkRadio, you can record audio just by phoning it in. You can also record with a simple microphone on your computer and post it to your own blog or web site.

6. Video: Video is a terrific story teller! Ignore all the goofy stuff, and you can find wonderful videos on YouTube, Google Videos and the others produced by small businesses. You can demonstrate a product, share a passion, show solutions to problems, and share testimonials. If you want to get away from all the weird videos, use a service like Blip.tv to embed the video onto your own blog or website.

7. Photos: Lots of businesses have great photo opportunities. Are your customers using Flickr and other sites right now to share photos? Start a group to let them come together. Upload your own pics. Encourage group interaction.

8. Social Media Sites: MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, and their many relatives give you a chance to build networks of interested folks, mostly for social non-commercial interaction. Why bother with "non-commercial" communication? Because it is the conversation and interaction that build relationships much deeper than any ad campaign.

9. Ecommerce: If you want sell products online, you enter a whole new realm of tools and learning. A few simple tools that can integrate into your small business website are affiliate programs like Chitika, eMiniMalls and Amazon, or ads like TextLinkAds and AdSense. Another service, Fulfillment by Amazon, lets you sell products but have Amazon manage the warehousing and fulfillment.

10. Forums: You probably have visited online forums or bulletin boards. You name a topic, and there are forums on it. You can establish an active presence on existing forums or you can even start your own, if you want to build a community around yourself. It's a lot of work to maintain a good forum, but it can pay off in lively relationships.

11. Text/SMS: While not strictly an online tool, text message or mobile marketing is still an effective one. Services like Mobivity let you set up opt-in marketing to customers' cell phones for contests, prizes, coupons, or any other info. "Text for more info" is appearing on real estate signs through services like CellAHouse, or even on Tshirts via Reactee.

Doing 'real' online marketing is only 10 percent

Other than building your presence online, you can invest up to 10 percent of your online marketing time on some additional "behind the scenes" tools.

Online Advertising

You can buy ads on many different sites that reach your target market by going directly to the site owner or manager. If you'd rather reach more than one site at at time, consider these advertising network tools.

Pay-per-click ads: With these ads, you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Most search engines offer ads next to search results, like Google AdSense, Yahoo! Search Marketing, or MSN adCenter.You decide how much you are willing to pay to appear next to searches for your keywords, and you can limit your total to spend. If you want quick exposure, this may be a good tool for you.

Text ads: Various companies, including Text Link Ads, will help you purchase a simple text link on many different sites. The costs are generally based on the number of days and the quality of the site, rather than on the number of clicks on your ad. If you don't like big flashy graphic ads, text ads may fit your style best.

Affiliate ads: Networks like Linkshare and Commission Junction make it possible for you to pay based on an action, like a completed sale, rather than on a click. So if a website refers a customer to your site, and that customer buys something, then you pay the affiliate commission. This tool may suit you best if you don't want to pay for people who click on your ad, but don't buy.

Conclusion

The simplified approach to online marketing is to select a few tools that fit your business and your customers, build your online presence, and develop relationships with current and potential customers through conversation. Contribute useful information to the online communities. Like the best in person networking, online relationships will connect you to new business opportunities. Don't try to do it all. What will customers think when they find that you have dozens of profiles, but they are mostly inactive and un-updated? Better to focus on just a few tools and use them well.