In my last post I talked about creating content.  Step one of inbound marketing strategy is getting found online.  Getting found involves 3 elements, creating content, optimizing the content and promoting the content.  Today I’m covering optimizing the content.

This is a step in the process that can also quickly overwhelm those who haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of the Internet.  There are several facets to it.  Optimizing your content means making it easy for the search engines to find it and serve it up to people who are looking for it online.  On the face of it that sounds pretty simple.  The trouble is there are a finite number of keywords and a finite amount of space available on the front page of search engine results pages (SERP). Everyone cannot be there.  You will be competing for a position on these pages.  This puts search engines, Google being the predominant one, in a position of having a lot of control of your success or failure in getting traffic to your online content.  Google has patented methods for determining which sites rise to the top positions and understanding how they rank sites is limited by the information Google is willing to share.

I strongly encourage you to read a little more deeply into this topic.  Having a strong understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) can go far both in helping you develop your specific plans for going forward and save you from wasting money and time in outsourcing this part of the operation.  A lot goes into optimizing a website and/or blog to help you rank higher for the keywords you selected earlier in the process.  Having a clear understanding of what keywords make the most sense, present the best opportunity for success and match your business model is important since it will factor into nearly everything you do online going forward.

Basically, you will want the content you create to be optimized for the same keywords in everything you post online.  Why?  More content on your site related to this set of keywords conveys the message to the search engine that your site is focused on this topic and therefore has the greatest likelihood of providing the most comprehensive information on the topic.  A word of caution here, it isn’t just about slinging keywords onto the page in question.  Google has gotten very sophisticated in evaluating webpages and the days of merely loading the page with a paragraph or so of a rambling string of keywords are long gone.  These practices can land your site at the back of a very long line as punishment.

What does it mean for a site to be optimized?  It means your content should be useful and follow logical order for the human readers but it should also be arranged with search engines in mind.  The page title, headings and content should contain relevant keywords as often as possible.  Another easily overlooked place for optimizing content is in the images your site is using.  Google cannot read what is in the images, only the file name, and alternate text so it is important to consider this when naming the photos used on your site.  Make sure you take the extra step of including alternate text.  Alternate text is what is displayed when the image doesn’t load on the page for some reason and also gives the search engine information about what is presented in the photo.

The elements I’ve mentioned so far are on page factors.  You will also need off page factors and these appear to be carrying more weight these days.  Off page SEO involves building backlinks to your site, that is having other sites linking to your content for the relevant keywords.  In addition to volume of backlinks, the quality of those sites linking back to your content are also examined by Google. The old methods of link farms and trading links isn’t as effective these days.  Basically, Google wants to rank sites well that have valuable content that is well organized and easy to find.  Doing all you can to meet that burden is the best way to get things happening in a natural way.

There isn’t time or room here to cover the vast subtleties of SEO.  Most of us will have to outsource this step.  Before you run out and hire someone to help you I cannot impress upon you enough the need for you to have at least a basic understanding of what it is and the best practices.  Not the most exciting topic in the world to read and study about for sure but  a little extra effort on your part here can carry you a very long way toward later success.

What if you find you are in a business that is highly competitive for the keywords that suit it best?  This is where social media can enter the picture in a big way.  If you find overtaking competition on Google to be unlikely, too expensive or outside your grasp for any reason, you can focus your efforts instead on building an online community using your network and building out from there using Social Media tools.  We’ll cover this step later since you will use it to promote your content whether you are in a postion to compete in the search engines or not.

I mentioned in an earlier post one of the differences between websites and blogs is that Google tends to like blogs more than websites.  The way Google lets us know it likes something is by how it ranks it.  It tends to be easier to rank well for your chosen keywords using a blog than a website.  Most believe this is because blogs are much more dynamic with content being updated more often and that content is likely to contain the relevant keywords if you do a good job at thinking ahead on what your site will be about and those keywords fit the natural flow of things.  If you have both, I encourage you to have the blog housed on the same domain as your website so all the relevant keyword traffic is going to the same place, everything working together to build a solid foundation.

Don’t take the selection of keywords lightly.  Seek professional guidance or spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of SEO at this early stage in the process.  Future efforts will provide much more profitable results.  Realizing later you did a poor job of picking out the keywords will be a disappointing experience. Remember, this is not going to be a fast and overnight process but it is one that builds continuously the next step relying on the foundation set in place by the previous one.  Doing a good, thorough job in these early stages gives you a strong foundation for the future.

Next we’ll move to a discussion of promoting the content you create and this will get to some particulars about using Social Media as part of the recipe in building an Inbound Marketing strategy.

This marks the 2nd of my posts on how to set up an Inbound Marketing strategy.  We’re now exploring the creation of remarkable content which is the lynch pin for getting found on the Internet.  I want to remind you again, the point here is to offer your clients and prospects good, solid information, free of charge.  It is this content you will then market toward building relationships.

Getting your head around this will be the first obstacle since most of us are not in the habit of writing, creating video and audio posts etc. that will be publicly viewed.  We’re also not in the habit of making lots of things to just give away free of charge on a regular basis.

The most obvious and fairly easy place to have content on the Internet is on a blog or website.  Websites are much more static than blogs and for that reason are not as easy to manage when it comes to creating content.  If you are a one-person operation you will want to start with a blog.  If you already have a website, you still want to start a blog for ease of use and because Google is a little more friendly to them these days in terms of exposure.

If you’re relatively new to the world of Internet marketing you may not know the difference between a website and a blog.  The short version is a website is much like an online billboard, a place to post information that will stay put for extended periods and a blog is more dynamic, functioning like a running commentary from you to your clients and prospects.  Most companies that have been around for awhile have a website, not so many have a blog.  If you are  more established in business and have the resources you can easily outsource the setup of these tools which brings me to another point.

Marketing on the Internet is about more than merely having a website or even a blog and then doing a little advertising for it by purchasing banner ads or pay-per-click advertising.  It needs to be thought of more as an overall strategy, inbound marketing, and the elements you put in place are all tools that plug into that strategy.  Each recipe can and will vary somewhat as the businesses that use them differ on a wide scale.  What I’m talking about here is an overall framework to follow and then customize according to your needs and ability.

Setting up a blog is not a complex project.  I use and recommend Wordpress.  There is the Wordpress hosted version, completely 100% free and there is Wordpress.org where you can download the software (still free) and install or have it installed on your own domain (some very small expense here) – this is the preferred route since it gives more credibility and you will have much greater control.  There are a host of books, websites and consultants that can foster you along on setting up and customizing a blog and it is a topic I’ll explore in greater depth later on but for now we’ll stick to the basic action of getting a blog.  It is very important to begin this project with the end in mind.  Many install their blog on a free site with the intent of moving it to a self-hosted site (on their own domain) later on and I want to caution against that.  Here’s why.  A big part of getting found online is controlled by Google and the age of your site along with volume of content is a factor.  We’ll talk about in a later post.  Self-hosting on your own domain is not outside your capability even if you are a beginner and you will already be building toward your future if you start out this way.  Again, I’ll cover this topic in greater depth at a later time.

Once you have a blog, getting content out there for the world is not all that difficult from a technical perspective.  Getting disciplined in consistently creating content and sharing it will be the hurdle.  My advice is to start small and build the habits first.  Make it a habit to get on your blog once or twice a week and write a little blog post.  What do you write about?  If you get started with the end in mind the ideal way is to select keywords that will be the core element of everything you will do online.

When you’re already in business, finding keywords isn’t quite as difficult because you’re limited to the scope of your existing operation for the most part.  If you’re just thinking about going in business or have some flexibility in just what goods and services you will offer, spending a considerable amount of time researching the value of the keywords you might use can carry you a long way.  Again, this is another complicated topic I’ll revisit and if you can’t come up with the perfect set of keywords at least be thinking in general terms what someone might type into Google to find your site and try to include these in your topics and conversation with your blog posts.  The point for now is building the habits of creating content.  Quality can be refined over time. Simply think of a common question your customers ask, answer it online in the form of a blog post.  Also, visit around to other blogs for ideas.

Ultimately, your blog (and website if you have one) will be your content factory.  This is where you will “manufacture” your new product – the content that will be shared freely with your intended community.  Next, we’ll continue with this discussion as I dig deeper into how to get found using a blog.

I invite you to subscribe to my monthly email updates in the right margin so you don’t miss any posts.  I encourage you to share this post with others, there is a link above to “tweet” it to your followers.  There is also a “Share” button at the bottom of this post.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn, a bit of homework.  Click the share button below.  A whole new world will open up to you.  If you think Social Media is limited primarily to Facebook, Twitter and maybe LinkedIn this will be an incredible eye-opener.  You will want to know about social bookmarking services since this will become a big part of your world as you gain experience with your blog and the whole concept of getting found online.  So try it out, (hint, the site you will visit has tutorial videos for you) just press buttons and explore until you figure it out, nothing will break, I promise and I’ll be talking about this tool and others like it later on in great detail

If you still think social media is a waste of time or limited to use merely for entertainment you might be interested in a recent Nielsen report.  Time spent on sites like Facebook and Twitter rose a whopping 82% in the past year!  I also found a report that mentioned Facebook and Google were in a dead heat during the Christmas holiday season as most visited sites online.  That is quite an accomplishment when you realize just how many places there are to visit out here on the Internet.

If you are looking to reach the masses all in one place, these numbers cannot be ignored.  True, there is still a lot of work to be done in learning exactly how to use these sites as marketing vehicles but be assured all platforms are working around the clock to find the best solutions.  The best formula these days appears to be a formula for mixing things together in your own recipe.

Think of the various social media platforms as neighborhoods.  Some will spend more time in one or the other, some will never venture outside any but their favorite and some will want you to remind them to come to your neighborhood (email newsletter).  Depending on budget available the approaches will vary.  The wonderful thing about using any of these platforms is they allow you to invent your very own approach if you don’t want to follow along with the masses.

Is your business using social media as a marketing tool this year?

The shift away from the traditional forms of marketing and over to Internet methods continues to grow and it is most apparent in the political arena.  Those who have followed the marketing efforts of President Obama in toppling the Clinton political machine know Social Media played a key role in that success.

Advertising Age,  a leading source for marketing and media news wrote a very informative piece about Scott Brown’s use of Social Media in his campaign and how it appears to have been very influential in reaching voters with his message.  Advertising Age goes on to reference David Meerman Scott’s (a Cokely supporter) comments on Cokely’s lack of Social Media presence in reference to an event Cokely was having before the election. “Mr. Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” who attended the event at Northeastern University, said the campaign asked students to volunteer at a phone bank, post yard signs and the like, but didn’t mention their likely primary means of communication, Facebook, invented in a dorm room across the Charles River at Harvard.”

This article is just another of many that illustrates Social Media and the Internet as a whole, cannot be discounted any longer as a powerful marketing vehicle.  It is not business as usual where marketing is concerned and we are likely to continue to see some major changes developing over the next few years.  More and more new technology will be available and part of the mainstream.

Businesses (and politicians) who continue to ignore how powerful Social Media is in reaching an audience may be doing so at their own peril.

Where better to find out the strengths and weaknesses of traditional media than traditional media.  Last week I wrote a post about a study that shows the strength print continues to have in bringing us news.  I also pointed out that it is no longer so strong as a marketing vehicle and suggested they will likely change the way they generate revenue.  Relying more on the consumer rather than advertisers.

Many popular news vehicles have started charging for content and The New York Times has announced plans to go back down this road again after having attempted it sometime back. It failed the last time but the world is a little different now, maybe it will work with many other news sources also beginning to move in this direction.

The Internet is buzzing with a variety of blog posts about this decision (click here to see just one of them or explore Google if you want to know more). Exploring several of these articles we find many go pretty deep in giving details on the continued decline of print and traditional media in terms of circulation and advertising revenue.  Those like me who have been inside the traditional media world for the past several years know the realities.  Whether they are said out loud depends on a variety of circumstances.  It’s like the elephant in the room.  It is easy to suggest it is the economy and I’m sure it sped things up but I don’t think that is the reason for the decline.

In the past I did want to believe it was the economy causing the slide downward.  The alternative gave me a sick feeling since selling advertising in a print publication was my career and I happen to still truly enjoy print publications.  Like many of my colleagues (both those still hanging in there and those who’ve moved out) I just didn’t want to contemplate this as a permanent trend.  I believe many are still holding onto the notion that things will just go back to the way they were or maybe just a slightly modified version once we pull out of this recession.

The decision by a media giant like the New York Times to take a second run at charging for their content should rattle at least some who are still clinging to this notion.  Social Media, the Internet, email marketing, RSS feeds, etc. are not toys and they are not going away.  There is a lot of fumbling around by everyone in trying to learn how these tools fit into the big picture but that’s normal.   This is all fairly new and there are no experts.  That’s right, no experts.

Since the sand shifts every single day out here on the Internet there can be no true experts, only authorities in the sense of spending a lot of time experimenting and learning what these new technologies offer.  I read a book recently, The Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.  In it, he takes us through a series of discussions about geniuses to illustrate we don’t necessarily have to be the smartest but instead just smart enough. So don’t worry about being an expert or even finding one…just get smart enough.

That’s the benchmark we need to strive for in stirring in social media and other Internet gadgetry to the marketing mix.  Smart enough to use it to grow our businesses.  Smart enough to recognize the need to change.  Smart enough to just get busy and do it.

The very first concept to grasp in starting the inbound marketing approach is getting found.  The old model of interrupt marketing is quickly dying and those who struggle with using social media in an effort to advertise their businesses are most likely faltering because they continue to use the interrupt method.  It’s the equivalent of bursting into a room and screaming “buy my stuff”.  We wouldn’t do this in real life and we shouldn’t do it in the virtual community of social media either.  Nothing wrong with mentioning what you do occasionally it just can’t be all about that.

The key is shifting your thinking toward having the ideal audience find you and your company.  For many of us this new way of doing things is a very tough transition.  We now have to be focused on giving content – at no charge – to attract a community of followers.  The community your interested in attracting are those who might want to buy your product or service.  We’re now building an environment where everyone wins.  The consumer receives guidance and information and you get the opportunity to earn their business by demonstrating your expertise in a particular area.  You’re building a true relationship with your customers and prospects, much like the old general stores of the past where everyone in the community knew the merchants on a personal level.

The concept is simple but the methods for doing it get intricate and a bit complex.  Building a good inbound marketing foundation will take time, patience and dedication.  No drive-by selling here, you must be in it for the long haul.  The good news is this approach means no wasted efforts since each step is a foundational building block to the next and only contributes to the big picture going down the line.

Getting found online involves three steps.  1) create content 2) optimize the content 3)promote the content.  Please note the third step is promote the content, NOT the goods and services you sell.  You will now promote what you have to offer that is free of charge.  Again, this is stating it very simply.  Each of these three steps needs to be unpacked to much more intricate stages.

The next discussion in this category will tackle the first of the three steps to getting found.  Creating content.  There are a number of primary vehicles for doing this online.  Creativity will offer opportunities to add others but we’ll focus on five or so to get the ball rolling.

I invite you to share your thoughts here in the comment area of this post and I hope you will subscribe to the monthly newsletter (in the right margin).  I would like the opportunity to hear more from you within my communities on Facebook and Twitter.

If you found this information useful I hope you will share it with others.

Lisa

I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks building resources for you.  The primary goal of this site is to help you manage the monumental task of marketing your business (or getting the word out for personal projects).  I am structuring this site so you can get started all by yourself in your fuzzy slippers and jammies.  The goal is to grow to a point where you can confidently outsource your marketing tasks which will also be covered here.

I’ve been in advertising sales for more than 15 years before getting out here on my own.  Over and over I’ve seen the struggle many businesses have in sorting through options, streamlining the marketing process and just finding a formula that works without spending themselves into a hole.  Outsourcing can be tricky too since you’re at the mercy of those you hire when you aren’t sure how all of these processes work.

Monday I’ll begin a series of posts that will be a permanent, reference section on this site.  It is the How2 Category and it will contain How2 articles.  The logo you see on this post will mark each of them so you can easily spot them on the front page of the blog when they are first published.

What’s in it for you? FREE information and step-by-step guidance in how to manage the marketing side of your operation.  How to avoid wasting money, how to know when to outsource and how to find the best outsourcing tools and partners.

What’s in it for me? When you learn these steps and get to know me I hope you will call on me to help with some of these processes.  I offer a variety of software applications, classes and consulting services to use when you’re ready to move up.  I am also hand-selecting partners who can manage each facet of the process and understand the big picture we’re trying to build using inbound marketing strategy. My goal is always win-win.  I win your friendship and business, you win in building your business without wasting money.

Register for my FREE monthly email updates (in the right margin).  Just once a month I send an overview of the blog posts I’ve written and exclusive tips and  information for subscribers only.  If you’re too busy to visit the blog all the time, this resource will allow you to get a summary so you can visit just the posts you need.

Follow me on Twitter or Become a Fan on Facebook to find out when new posts go live, get more snippets about the marketing world and get to know me a bit better.  I would love to meet you in person and will make mention in these places when I’m going to be attending events.

Want More? Get a FREE Inbound Marketing Assessment.  I’ll be happy to meet with you in person in Alabama, or by phone, Skype or webinar out of the state, to help you see what it will take to implement an inbound marketing campaign for your business.

Live Classes I’ll be teaching live classes on Inbound Marketing Strategy throughout Alabama – announcements will be made to subscribers each month by email, please register in the right margin. Want me to come to your town?  Just contact me and we can talk about it.

Looking forward to a successful 2010 and hope you will join me!

Lisa I.

Take a look at the article, How News Happens by Journalism.org (a Pew Research Center Project).  It is an interesting read and in my view simply underscores the need for the revenue generation model of newspapers and other traditional media outlets to change.  The study cited in the article finds that newspaper is still the primary source of original news and other channels simply repeat it (at least in the locality examined in the study).  I would like to see newspapers not just survive, but thrive.  I believe they can if they change their model for revenue generation.  I don’t believe they can continue to rely on advertising as the primary source of revenue.

When given the opportunity, I still enjoy sitting down and flipping through the daily paper and have heard others say this.  I just can’t say it is the primary vehicle I would use for making purchasing decisions and do not believe it can ever again be the best choice for this role.   The model has simply changed.  The Internet now allows us to peek behind the curtain and see the people behind the brands and as social beings we enjoy the opportunity to be able to interact.  If newspapers and other forms of traditional media are to survive I believe the revenue generation must shift from the advertisers to the consumers.  It is the content they can offer that makes them valuable, not the advertising.

You know the old saying, “there is nothing new under the sun”?  My take is this is largely true and the differences are just in the delivery.  Where marketing is concerned people still like the concept of the “old general store”.  An opportunity to trade with a person they know and make a social occasion of it at the same time.  I submit this is why the Internet offers such promise for marketing products and services.   We can find what we want, get to know all about the people behind the products and all without a middleman.

As the Internet and social media options grow, the need for traditional media to bring us messages and opportunities to get to know companies goes down.  We can now go directly to the companies at no charge when we are ready to hear the message.  The longer these new channels exist and improve, the more people will discover and use them.  The larger audience will be online and reaching it will be more cost effective.

So what do you think?  Is newspaper dying with no hope of survival?  Do you want to see it survive?  Do you believe it is a sound investment for marketing purposes?  I invite you to share your thoughts by commenting here.

Do you enjoy interruptions?  The simple fact is most interruptions are not something special and so most of us don’t like receiving them.  Is it any wonder that the old, traditional model of interrupt marketing isn’t really producing the kinds of results it did in years past?

When marketing and advertising with traditional methods are used an interruption is required.  Someone has to stop what he or she is doing to receive the marketing message.  People have the option of ignoring these interruptions and that is how most of us handle them a good percentage of the time.  When you attach that fact to a dollar figure it certainly can create a lot of anxiety.

If we start thinking about our marketing efforts this way it makes evaluation of the money we spend to market our products a little more sticky.  It is hard to accept that the dollars spent on advertising are invested in places where the message is largely ignored.  It is better to take the entire sum spent on one particular outlet, then evaluate how much business came from that effort to get a clear idea of the return on investment.

I’ll bet this is something everyone looks forward to isn’t it?  Trying to figure out just exactly how much business is being generated by each vehicle used to carry the message.  The reality is most of us don’t do a very detailed job of this in the small business arena, who has time for it? Not to mention that traditional forms of marketing don’t make this easy.

Inbound marketing is gaining momentum as more and more realize it is a lot more cost efficient to talk to an audience who wants to hear the message and it comes with a bonus of being a lot more fun.  It is also much easier to track progress. Pick up a copy of Seth Godin’s book Tribes (your library should have it).  It is a very quick read and goes a very long way in getting your mind wrapped around the idea of a key element of inbound marketing.  You will have to start thinking in terms of being a leader.  The traditional business world has reserved this title for management positions only but the truth is any of us can lead.  Most of us do lead in some form or other.  Now we must learn to apply the concept to marketing our products and services whether we are in management or not.

Having people interested in what we are saying and seeking out our messages is much more enjoyable than randomly tapping on the shoulder of countless people hunting down one who might be interested in what we have to say.  How do we attract people who are interested and genuinely want to know about our products and services?

Next we’ll start talking about attracting and building an audience.  Since Web 2.0 arrived on the scene we have a lot to work with and many of us are being stressed by the overwhelming options and the inability to see how to efficiently put them to work.

One last thought, an audience is an audience whether it is one person or a million people.  No need to be too focused on volume at this stage.  Time will remedy a lot of this as long as you start building.  The most important first step is to move forward so let’s go!

For years I have counseled my advertising clients to have their advertising efforts working together as the sum of a whole rather than treating each separate ad or marketing effort like a stand alone element.  Maximizing the value of every advertising dollar is the smartest way to operate and making mention of other advertising efforts being made is a great way to get the most value.

More recently I have counseled others to be sure to push their online content through traditional channels and vice versa.  It just makes sense. This is particularly important when we know our audience is now scattered across a fragmented marketplace. Pulling things together in this way is providing the thread that weaves our marketing tapestry.

Mashable published a post today highlighting this very thing, discussing how Trident Gum published a full page ad to show the conversation taking place on their Twitter Feed.  A beautiful example of capitalizing on the marketing effort being placed in the Social Media sphere and also advertising their presence on Twitter to those in the traditional print media audience of the newspaper.  They will certainly gain more Twitter followers using this method and the newspaper audience gets a glimpse of the Twitter conversation.

This also brings to mind another point.  If you have your eye on streamlining your marketing efforts, you could follow this lead to move as much of your audience online as possible and just pour all of your resources to that single channel in a variety of ways.  I happen to believe this is the transition that is underway since it makes the most sense from both  economical and efficiency perspectives.  If you are a small business, take note.  This is a spectacular way to get the very most out of your resources and is especially useful when the budget is limited.

I’ll be writing all about Inbound Marketing strategy and technique in the coming year.  This example illustrates parts of Inbound Marketing strategy.  Moving more and more of your marketing effort online will require the kind of thinking being demonstrated here by Trident Gum.  Building your audience is a key element of Inbound Marketing and all of your marketing efforts going forward should be aimed at that goal.

What are your plans for synchronizing your advertising and marketing efforts in 2010?  You can share your comments here, or join my Facebook fanpage and share your thoughts there.  I also encourage you to sign up for my email list (both links are in the right margin).  Over the next several months I’ll be giving you step by step instructions for building an Inbound Marketing plan for your business and discussing the vast array of tools available to implement the plan.

~Lisa