There is. However this strategy requires a change in thinking, as you must stop ‘chasing the buyer’ and learn instead how to get clients to chase you. Read more here

1/2 Of One Percent
The standard return on investment, the number we’ve used in outbound marketing since the beginning, has always been 1/2 of 1% on outbound messages. It may be a little more, often a little less and some may argue, but this is the benchmark. Stop and think about what that means.  It means if you tell 1000 people about a product or service 1/2% , or five people will likely respond. That does not mean buy – it means respond in some way.

If this number holds, and it is the generally accepted standard, this means to make five sales you will need have 1000 visitors to your website. So how many visitors do you have on a daily or weekly business basis?  Write that number down and multiply by 1/2 of 1%. How many Facebook followers to you have?  Do you have 1000?  If so you can expect about 5 responses for a given message. How many Twitter followers to you have?  Do you have 1000? If so, you can expect about 5 of them to respond to something.

Many people are really surprised when they see this number. It may not be that you’re not going a good job – it may be that you’re not doing enough in regards to generating the required numbers required to produce good returns.

The Wrong Way
In regards to creating Internet publicity there is a right way and a wrong way.  For instance, most people use social media as a networking tool rather than as a marketing tool.  They generate a larger and larger list of followers and then pitch their product to that list. This is social media networking, it is NOT social media marketing. Frankly this is somewhat un-professional, it borders on being manipulative and usually does not produce good results of all.  Endlessly pitching a product to a very small group of people will usually not create good results and frankly may create the opposite effect.

What will create good results is to tell a huge number of people about a product and create word of mouth or, these days, word of mouse.  This is the opportunity the Internet affords.  Here we are not talking about hundreds of people – we’re talking about thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people.

The only way to generate these huge numbers is through organic traffic. Organic traffic is not the relatively small numbers of friends or followers you have – organic traffic comes from the very large numbers of interested buyers who are members of the buying PUBLIC.

The Right Way
So what is the right way?  There are two key components to doing it the right way are two:

1. You must get your message in front of interested people that is those who’ve demonstrated an interest previously and

2. You must get it in front of huge numbers of those people.

How Can This Be Accomplished?
There are many ways this can be accomplished, but this always depends on the product or service being offered.  Overall the strategy is to use search engines – especially dedicated search engines – to deliver your message to the large group of interested people.

In the old days, ‘getting the word out’ was accomplished through traditional media.  We sent a news release to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations to inform them that a product existed and to ask them to consider putting OUR message in front of THEIR audience.  This does not work like it used to, as traditional media has lost much of their marketing value due to the advent of the Internet. Today nearly everybody uses the Internet when doing research on which products or services they intend to buy. But the theory still holds and the Internet engines now serve the same function.

Inbound VS Outbound
Remember” people do NOT like to be sold, but they do love to FIND WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR. If you try to yell, tell and sell, your message will likely be rejected. But if your pre-qualified clients FIND what they seek, they are much more likely to tell other people what they have found. Think about it – when you receive an advertisement, do you immediately send it along to your friends? When you get an unsolicited message, do you send that to your friends? Of course you do not. Yet, when you FIND something you feel is interesting you will often send it to your friends.

Their many other ways creating effective Internet publicity can be accomplished but the message is this – the singular problem that most people face in regards to creating real success on the Internet is the fact that they think too small. If you hope to compete on a regional, national or international level, a few hundred Facebook followers or a few thousand Twitter followers is simply not going to make that happen. Your Facebook page is but one of millions. You are one of millions of people on Twitter. There are millions upon millions of blogs and some say upwards of a trillion web pages. You want to consider an Internet publicity strategy that creates real awareness and the does so in sufficient numbers to produce good results.  Again there are many ways to do this but the method you should be use for your product depends on your product, your target market profiles and a number of other very specific factors. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ marketing strategy.

One thing is certain: if you hope to create real success, concentrating on small groups of people will not cut it today. If you hope to achieve real success, you will need to get that message where it can be found not by hundreds or thousands of people, but rather by millions of people on the worldwide stage. The question you must ask is this – Is what I am doing now producing the results I desire. If the answer is no, then something needs to change.

Read more at the Free Publicity Focus Group

A marketing strategy is not being on Facebook.  A marketing strategy is not being on Twitter or other social sites.  A marketing strategy is not sending out press releases to lists of uninterested parties.  It is not being listed on marketing sites or any of the other things most think of as a marketing strategy.  These are just methods and tools.  These tools are used to IMPLEMTENT the underlying marketing strategy.

A valid marketing marketing strategy entails:

A.  Determining how many people comprise your potential buying profiles

B.  Clearly defining who they are -age, gender, income range, geographic area, likes, dislikes ETC.

C.  Determining what style of message will cause them to buy

D.  Branding and positioning your business as the ‘go-to’ resource that will provide what your potential buyers feel they need

E.  Developing a clear message written in your buyer’s style of language, that will convince the buyer that you have what they need, while increasing their motivation to buy it from you

F.  Making it easy for them to find you first on the Internet, as today marketing necessitates a laser sharp inbound strategy

G. Determining how they prefer to be contacted and delivering the message in the manner they prefer

H.  Offering your buyers specific calls to action

I.  Managing the processes

During every step, you must communicate strongly and clearly.  You must build lasting relationships. And you must maintain control of the process before during and after the sale.

Unfortunately many people just throw up a website, a blog, sign up for Facebook or Twitter and believe they have created a marketing plan. This is certainly not the case, but many people do this. Without a laser sharp, profile-targeted strategy, designed to produce real marketing results, these can become mere time wasters and will most likely function very inefficiently.  This ‘cookie cutter’ approach will likely accomplish very little and, without an underlying strategy covering all the above, will cause the marketing efforts to appear to be scattered, unorganized and amateurish.

In addition to all of the above, in today’s Internet Marketing model, we must be able to put forth a targeted marketing message in each one of the four key areas.  These are:

Search engines – as most buyers now say the Internet is their first choice for making purchasing decisions.

Traditional media – still important but only if your profiles are still reading newspapers and magazines ETC.

Social media – a very large percentage of people now participate in social media and you must be there or risk being invisible as these people are very loyal to these types of tools.

The ‘blogosphere’ – bloggers are fast becoming the new media.

The subject of creating an effective marketing plan is so broad that to attempt to address it in a single blog post would be futile.  There are many free articles available on the Free Publicity Focus Group site that cover these areas in much more detail. There you will find a sign-up form for a free, no-cost no-obligation marketing strategy analysis. This report covers 22 areas and is specific to creating a working marketing strategy for your product or service.

A website is a website is a website. These days anyone can put up a website. Simple websites that have been thrown up to create presence on the Internet are just that – simple websites. An effective book marketing website however is a work of art. A good author website produces results. But the best looking websites are not necessarily the best results producing websites

If your author website is not producing the sales you hoped for, there is something wrong in your design or approach. Figuring out WHAT is wrong can be an overwhelming challenge for some people. However, it’s actually quite easy if you understand how an effective author website produces book marketing results. The video below provides information on some of the most important concepts. More information is available at the Free Publicity Focus Group site.

If you want to take your book marketing efforts to the next level, you can get a free, no obligation Marketing and Publicity Strategy Analysis report at the Free Publicity Focus Group site at http://bit.ly/opz2jL. This analysis covers all the areas of concern in the video and will produce a 25 to 30 page report specific to marketing your book in the Internet marketing environment.

(I am discussing social media MARKETING STRATEGY in this post, not social media communications or social media on the whole.)

We get very excited about social media because we believe social media offers the opportunity to create powerful and positive word of mouth among potentially millions of people in the inbound online environment. The reality for most businesses is quite different. Many of the owners I consult with are jaded with social media marketing.  “Social media sucks” (or the equivalent) is a phrase I hear hundreds of times a year. It simply does produce verifiable results for some businesses.

On the other side of this discussion we have a group who swears social media is working for them. From this we can safely assume that social media works for some businesses but does not work for others. And so there are two very simple questions that must be asked in regards to social media marketing strategy development:

a. Why does social media marketing ‘work’ for some businesses and not others and

b. What do we mean when we say ‘it works?’ In other words, what is the objective – the benchmark – by which social media marketing is judged?

An example from the world of advertising will serve to answer both questions.

TWO DISTINCT MESSAGES

In regards to advertising, there are two basic types of advertisements. The first type has been termed ‘awareness’ advertising. The second type is ‘results’ advertising.

To present an extremely simple example, an awareness print ad might be a picture of the storefront. The headline is ‘We’ve been here 25 years’ with perhaps a branding statement and the contact information included. The goal here is to CREATE AWARENESS; to tell or perhaps remind potential buyers or current customers about the existence of the business and to remind them of what the business can do for these groups.

On the other hand, a results print ad might be ‘BE HERE BEFORE FRIDAY AT 2PM TO GET 50% OFF!’ This type of ad will cause the phone to ring, people to visit the store and will drive sales in real time.

POOR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Unfortunately, many businesses try to use social media as results advertising. They expect DIRECT sales from Facebook or Twitter posts. These are the poor souls who, day after day, week after week, post messages like ‘My new book is now available’ or ‘Buy this product today’ or ‘Sale this week’. The end effect is that the business comes off sounding like one of those TV pitch men. One can almost hear the water being squeezed out of the super-duper, way-overpriced shammy thing.

As the person receiving this message, how many of these types of lowball messages will you put up with before you stop reading posts from this business at all?  It’s boring, amateurish, it gets old fast and it’s not very effective.

A BETTER SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
On my Twitter account, I have two lists I maintain. Every message I receive goes into one of these two categories

a. ‘Read This’
b. ‘Everybody else’

What goes on the ‘read’ list?

Awareness based posts. Informational posts. These posts inform me about new reports relevant to my industry. White papers. Blog posts. Information I want or need. I read every post from people or businesses who offer information, opinions or studies.

These types of posts build credibility. They create trust. They provide information I need. And, eventually, those who offer this type of information often get my money.

People do not want to be sold. But we do want to buy based on our belief in a product, person, business or service. These awareness based, informational posts provide a real value, as opposed to endless sales pitches. Personally, I maintain a 3 strike rule – three direct sales pitches and the business is forever categorized as ‘everybody else’.

THE BOTTOM LINE?
Those who say social media marketing works do primarily awareness based posts and build interested readerships that TRANSLATES into sales. Those who do not experience success do ‘results’ based posts containing endless sales pitches, which (in my case) translates into ‘stop following’.

The answer then is simple. As a business entity, you must provide real value to your followers. Provide industry specific reports, studies or surveys. Give new potential customers a reason to trust you. Let them get to know you; let them hear your voice. Treat social media posts as outbound, awareness building tools. The goal should be to drive traffic to your site -  your online store. It is there the sales will happen.

The only way you will get me (or anyone else to your site for that matter) is to provide something of real value.

Read more at the Free Publicity Focus Group

Old School Marketing

There is an old joke in the marketing business –

Q. How does one become a marketing expert?
A. Print up some business cards

The point? Everyone has an opinion about marketing. The world is now filled with ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’. However, it is a fact that very few can actually do it successfully. Even those who COULD do it successfully in the past may be having a hard time today transferring their old-school methods to the Internet marketing environment.

Today, with the proliferation of ideas available on the Internet, many ideas have been put forth that, when really put to the test, simply do not work to produce real results. ‘One-size-fits-all’ or ‘packaged’ marketing models are used by many people who do not understand marketing and innocently believe these will work. The end result is often lackluster results and wasted time, money and resources.

TARGETED STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING

The marketing plan of a mega-giant such as Walmart, while wildly successful, would most likely fail miserably when used by a street corner appliance store. Likewise, the plan used successfully by a small organization would never work for a chain store. Every situation, every product, every audience and every group of potential buyers is unique. Therefore every marketing strategy must be tailored to a. the product being offered and b. the very specific group of potential buyers.

STRATEGIC MARKETING – Key Point One: Work Smarter, Not Harder

While an extremely high percentage of people fail in their marketing efforts, this is not due to lack of effort certainly. It is in many cases directly attributable to a lack of real world marketing knowledge or perhaps to relying upon listening to well-intentioned but very poor advice. However, in nearly every case, all those who fail have some common characteristics. What are these common causes of failure?

1. They do not have a real strategy – if the strategy is not unique, well researched and written out, it does not exist
2. They do not have a valid marketing plan – if a marketing plan is not written out and followed, with specific goals and timetables, it is a wish list
3. They do not follow a strategic plan and then track the plan to completion.
4. They are living in the past and do not understand today’s marketing environment or use ‘cookie-cutter’ strategies.

Working harder will accomplish nothing at all if you are doing the wrong things.

STRATEGIC MARKETING – Key Point Two: Marketing In Today’s Inbound Environment

Marketing strategies have changed dramatically over the last few years. The Internet has not just had an effect on strategic marketing theory – it has instead completely transformed strategic marketing. Those who do not understand and use this ‘new’ marketing model are sure to become extinct, and will do so very quickly. Even mega-giant newspapers, publishers and many other old school forms are falling prey to these new marketing models.

In the ‘old days’ (just a few years ago) we told people that a product existed and counted on a specific number of people reacting to the message and taking action (buying the product). Normally the percentage of people who reacted was between .5% and 2 %. Therefore, the goal was to tell as many people as possible through outbound messages (advertising, publicity, etc). The more people we managed to reach, the more sales could be made.

Now however there are two types of strategies: outbound and inbound. The outbound strategy still involves finding people and making them aware that you exist and you must do some of that certainly. The inbound strategy (today’s Internet marketing model) makes it easy for people to find you when they search for you.

In the ‘old days’, there was no inbound strategy to speak of (other than a yellow page listing perhaps). One simply ran newspaper ads, did TV or radio or direct mail. People knew where you were located and then called or visited. Those days are not gone, but the importance of the outbound strategy has been overshadowed by the inbound nature of a marketplace dominated by search engines.

Marketing today requires a new thought pattern, as old school models no longer produce good results.

STRATEGIC MARKETING – Key Point Three: The Most Common Cause of Failure

Today, in an Internet environment where an overwhelming percentage of people see the Internet not as ‘A’ choice but as the ‘ONLY’ choice, the inbound strategy is of paramount importance, eclipsing the outbound strategy. You must make it easy for people to FIND you. This is difficult in an environment where your ‘online store’ is but one of hundreds of millions they might decide to visit. This requires working knowledge of search engine optimization strategies, keyword strategies – the list goes on and on.

Not implementing these properly or ignoring them will almost certainly cause failure – or, at the very least, mediocre results. In regards to learning what works in an inbound environment, there is a learning curve, but NOT learning what is necessary to be successful TODAY, in THIS marketing environment, can cause one to appear to be very busy, but produce little or no results. The end result – frustration, failure and marketing train wrecks.

However, it is important to note that though new ideas, methods and delivery systems pop up constantly, the basics of successful marketing have not and, most likely, will not ever change. This is because marketing is actually a study in human nature. The ‘new’ systems, ideas and methods are in many cases proven concepts repackaged and repurposed or perhaps simply done more efficiently or made more effective in some way. But today we must understand how human beings make purchasing decisions in the inbound environment, and we must change the approach from an outbound strategy to an inbound strategy.

For more information regarding how to begin to develop an effective marketing strategy, visit the Free Publicity Focus Group .

THE THREE FISHERMEN

Once upon a time there were three fishermen. All held the same goal – to catch as many fish as possible from the ocean.

Bob

Fisherman One – Bob – had a worm. Every single day he walked 5 miles to the ocean. It was a very long walk. He carefully put his worm on the hook and waited for a bite. Day after day, Bob did the same thing. Sometimes he used a worm, other days a piece of cheese, some days he went to the same area of the beach as the previous day, other days a different area. On and on, day after day, he tried everything he could think of to improve his results. He did manage to catch a few fish, but not a lot.

Joe's Boat

Fisherman Two- Joe – was very learned about fishing, as he had read every book available on fishing in the ocean. He did not walk – he drove to the beach, as this saved time and effort. He had a small homemade boat. He knew where the fish would be, and he used the kind of bait he knew would interest the fish. Joe caught many more fish than Bob, but his results were still not what one might call great.

Fred's Boat

Fisherman Three – Fred – had a large, powerful boat. The boat was equipped with GPS directional equipment, sonar, fish finders, radar and every type of fishing gadget under the sun – including a set of very large nets designed for ocean fishing. Fred pulled in truckloads of fish every day.

The moral of the story?

Internet marketing is like fishing in the ocean. Both the ocean and the Internet are unimaginably large and both offer unlimited opportunity. There are trillions of fish in the ocean and billions of buyers on the Internet.

Some Internet marketers are like Bob – they work very hard, are very sincere and keep on trying day after backbreaking day, but do not produce good results. This is not due to lack of effort, it is due to lack of knowledge. Or, perhaps they are happy with simply being busy. You can be very busy and get no results.

Some Internet marketers are like Joe – they have learned what it takes to be successful. It took many years for Joe to learn the skills necessary for success and so the results were better. Anyone can learn how to fish and anyone can learn how to market in an inbound environment. But it takes a great deal of time to learn what works and what does not. It takes a very long time and a great deal of experimentation.

And some Internet marketing professionals are like Fred. Fred does not play around. He uses every proven idea, tool and technique available to achieve his goal. Fred does everything big.

So, what is the one idea that changes everything?

Your own self-concept sets the limit on your Internet marketing success.

If you want to be successful at ocean fishing, you will need a very large and powerful boat equipped with what will find and catch huge numbers of fish. If you want to be successful at Internet marketing, you will need to make a very big splash by implementing a powerful marketing strategy utilizing the biggest and best of marketing tools.

If you spend all day puttering around on Facebook or Twitter, putting out one blog post per month or are happy with a few hundred visitors a month to your site, you are like Bob. You will expend some effort, perhaps a lot, but get few results.

If you spend all your time experimenting and trying things out, you will be more like Joe – you will eventually be successful, but it will take a very long time and a great deal of money will be wasted.

Be like Fred. Get big. Really big. Remember that what seems really big to you is not so big when seen from the perspective of the ocean. The bigger the better, as if you don’t make that big splash, no one will ever know you exist. And if the technology required to make that big splash is beyond your current level of understanding, get some strategic marketing help.

1. YOU (AND YOUR BOOK) MAY BE INVISIBLE
Recent studies show that an extremely high percentage of buyers state that the Internet is not just a choice – it is instead the ONLY choice. Even those who intend to buy in the ‘real’ world often do their research on the Internet before venturing out into that real world to purchase products and services.

Buyers must be able to find you. But they will NOT search by your name or your book’s title. They will instead search using a very generic phrase like ‘children’s book’ or ‘thriller’ or ‘spy novel’.

Studies show that hardly anyone goes beyond page three of search engine results. So, you must be on one of the first three pages for the GENERIC SEARCH TERM (like ‘children’s book) that describes your book. Go to a search engine and check this. Type in the generic phrase that describes your book and see if you are on the first three pages of search engine results. If you are not there, you are virtually invisible. If you are invisible, nothing else you do will matter much at all.

2. YOU MAY BE USING THE WRONG APPROACH
Marketing in the Internet environment requires a completely different approach. If you are using methods and strategies proven to work in the real world in the past, these old school strategies will most likely not work much at all in an Internet marketing environment. Even if you are using that old marketing model perfectly, you can still fail miserably in the Internet environment.

The old saying ‘Build it and they will come’ has been changed to ‘Build it and they will likely ignore you’. To achieve sales success, you must have interested traffic, and you must have a lot of it. You must know how to convert that traffic into sales. All the traffic in the world will not matter if it does not convert to sales. Converting traffic to sales is no small task.

3. YOU MIGHT HAVE NEGLECTED YOUR SEO STRATEGY
In the ‘old days’ (just a few years ago), the strategy was to tell as many people as possible about a product and hope that a percentage of people responded by buying the product (this is called an outbound strategy). But the Internet is search engine driven (requiring a laser sharp INBOUND strategy).

Today the potential buyer begins by typing a generic phrase into a search engine, in essence saying ‘Here is what I’m looking for’. Your book site is then indexed by the engines based upon how important it appears to be in regards to the generic phrase entered and in regards to how you stack up against the competition for that generic phrase. This is 180 degrees from the old school, real world model.

Search engines rule this environment. THEY decide who is important and are the equivalent of the traditional Yellow Pages. However you will only be listed in THIS one-of-a-kind gigantic online yellow page directory if you understand and follow the SEO rules given you by the engines. If you don’t know and understand the rules, you will be at the end of the listings. And, if you are at the end of the listings, no one is going to find you, as they will likely look at just the first three pages.

Imagine having your business banned from the yellow pages in the real world. Not having a great SEO strategy is the same thing. As far as the searcher – the book buyer – is concerned, you will not exist. This is especially true if the Internet is the only tool the buyer will use.

4. YOU MIGHT NOT BE COMMUNICATING SAYING WHAT YOUR BUYERS WANT TO HEAR
Let us suppose that the buyer does find your website. Now what?

Understandably, many authors like to talk about themselves – but the buyer is not really interested in your history, how you came to write the book, what lead you to write it, how you struggled. They want to know what your book will do for THEM. You must speak to THEIR NEEDS SPECIFICALLY. If you do not do this and do it well, you will have a visitor, but not a buyer.

You must get that desired message to them in under 30 seconds. You must know what THEY really want, and you must provide it more effectively than the competition. If you are not saying what the buyer wants to hear, they will likely never buy your book.

5. YOU MIGHT NOT BE COMMUNICATING A STRONG BRAND
Remember – to the Internet searcher, you are but one of millions. You may look like everyone else. Your book may be ‘just another book’ to that shopper. What are you telling the visitor that NO ONE ELSE is saying? Without a sharply researched brand, you will appear to be just like everyone else.

6. YOU MIGHT NOT BE POSITIONED PROPERLY
Type the phrase ‘children’s book’ into the Google engine today (May 1, 2011) and you will get over 30,900,000 hits. That is your competition. Every one of those pages is presented to that shopper. Your book is just one of them. You know your book is not like all the rest, but they do not. What have you done to take a strong position in regards to the competition you face?

7. YOU MIGHT NOT BE USING A STRONG CALL TO ACTION
All marketing sites are websites, but not all websites are marketing sites. Your site must be sharp, clean, clear and it must brand you and position you better than the competition. You must provide a logical, step-by-step map for the visitor to follow and you must have compelling calls to action in all the right places. If you do not do this, you will end up with visitors. Remember: a visitor is not a buyer and won’t become a buyer without a sharp brand, proper positioning and a strong call to action.

A website is a website is a website. Anyone can build a website. A book marketing website, on the other hand, should be a results-producing machine.

8. YOU MIGHT BE BORING THE BUYER
No, you are not a boring person. But do remember always that the attention span of the searcher is very, very short. There are millions of competitors, just one click away. You have 30 seconds to present the brand, the position and the primary reason why someone should buy YOUR book.

9. YOUR APPROACH MAY BE SELLING, RATHER THAN TELLING
When fishing, no one jumps into the water, jams the hook into the fish’s mouth and tries to force it to bite the hook. This is what many selling strategies are like.

If you yell in people’s ears, attempting to jam your really great hook in their mouths, don’t be surprised when they run away. (Think about how you feel about spam, pop up ads, Twitter-blab and commercials). No one likes to be sold.

Instead, in this environment, you must (much like fishing) offer irresistible bait instead. The fish will then come running, they will tell all their friends and they will bite willingly.

10. YOUR EXPECTATIONS MAY BE SET TOO HIGH
Don’t put up a website and believe people will magically just show up. They will not.
Don’t put up a website and expect people to buy, (if and when they visit). They will not.
Don’t put up a website and believe you are finished. You are not.

In the real world, building a successful business takes years and a great deal of effort. In the Internet environment, building your online store will take just as long – perhaps longer. It will require just as much work to make it succeed – perhaps more. The Internet is not a magic bullet. It is a different style of business. A real world business may have a few competitors just down the street. Your Internet business has millions of competitors, all right next door, just one click away.

In this environment the whole world is your potential buyer base. But this will not matter if you don’t learn how marketing really works in this environment. If you are not getting good results, don’t complain – instead, get some help.

Looking for some real help? Click here