The world is a crazy place right now and the economy is causing people to make major strategic shifts or even changes in their overall life plan.  The recent layoffs have actually spawned a new era of entreprenuers seeking to start their own ventures and follow dreams they have been pondering for a long time.  What do yo have to lose right?!  If you never try, you will never know what could have been.

Here are some basic but important tips for getting your start-up online business off the ground:

Have definable business goals:  Make sure you have completely defined your business goals and revenue streams with a clear plan on how to monetize them.  Usually this starts with some kind of business plan.  Even if you are not raising money and plan to boot strap for the first few years, writing a full business plan is a great exercise to help define the marketplace, competition, revenue model, break even analysis, etc.

Know your competition:  This would be defined of course during the business plan process but it is now more important than ever to understand what the competitors are doing.  The good ones are not operating the same way they were six months ago.  They will have created new revenue opportunities, found ways to cut expenses, and created a strategic plan for the next 12 months.  Many things might change between the time you start writing your plan for your online business and when you actually launch.  Follow the competition and makes adjustments accordingly.

Stop talking about it and do it:  You won’t grow a new business by only sitting around and planning.  You will have to eventually execute your plans.  Don’t be afriad to make mistakes…you will make them, and you will learn from them.  A proper amount of planning is very important but successful business owners execute their plans and keep things moving forward.

Build a great website:  You do not have to break the bank, but these days the first thing potential customers will do is research you online and look at your website.  People care about how things look and associate your website quality with your business…especially if you are running an online business!  Your site also needs to be set up to effectively support your business goals (i.e. foster conversions and new business).

Have an Internet marketing strategy:  Hiring an Internet marketing company that can help you build the most realistic strategy is important.  Trying to do it yourself if you do not have experience can lead to wasteful spending.  A good Internet marketing firm will help you define your goals, set benchmarks, and use analytics to continually refine the campaign to generate the best ROI.

Here are some good management tips that will keep your company going during tought times.  It does not matter if you run an Internet marketing company, a manufacturing plant, or a beauty parlor…these types of leadership guidelines translate across all industries.

Anyone can steer the ship in calm waters:  The sign of a true leader is one that will keep the team motivated and performing during the tough times.  Building a business in a good economy with the right resources is much different that understanding the strategic shifts necessary to keep you going during the hard times.

True leaders create change in their organizations:  If you can’t execute your business plans then you probably should not be leading the team.  The difference between a successful leader or manager and one that is not, is that they don’t just make plans…they implement those plans.

Lead by example:  This is especially true during a tough economy.  If you ask people to work late, you should be there too.  Don’t fly first class with the rest of your team in coach.  Don’t ask your people to make sacrifices that you are not willing to make yourself.  Lead fron the front and not the rear.  Bascially, do not ask your people to do something you would not be willing to do yourself.

Manage by walking around:  Get out of your office and walk around.  If you are at the top of the food chain do not confuse this concept with going around your middle managers.  However, it is important to get out there, talk to your team, ask them how things are going, etc.  You can gain a large amount of knowledge by doing this.

Work hard and market your business online:  Working hard and having a good product isn’t enough these days.  Lead your company by working hard, getting to the office first, staying late, and by all means…market your business online.  Internet marketing is the most cost effective way to enhance your brand exposure and increase revenue.  Give you team something to be proud of like a good website and powerful online presence.  It makes it easier to sell!

Valentine’s Day is upon us.  Everywhere you look, in your favorite TV shows, magazines, newspapers ads, movies, friends, co-workers, and yes, even social networks, the unmistakeable presence of Valentine’s Day can be seen and felt everywhere.  Fifteen or more years ago, Valentine’s Day did not really have a presence online, unless you were an uber-geek.  Nowadays, the love connection is all around us from websites catering to those seeking love, romance, a date, and yes, even a wedding.  People seek it, companies advertise it.  So how has social networking been affected by it?  If you have a facebook account, or MySpace, or any other social networking site, you can see it clearly on forums, banner ads, and by the daily postings from users and to one another.

Companies who want to become successful in the “love” bandwagon that is going on online, need to have a solid understanding what works, and how it ought to be executed.  Doing a simple email marketing campaign is not enough anymore.  People have setup countless filters to counteract the messages that companies are attempting to send out.  They view and treat these “spam” emails just like any other snail mail spam – it goes straight into the trash bin, both virtual, and physical.  If however, a person receives an email from a loved one, or a friend, or something so compelling to draw them to view the message, then you have success, and the ROI as a result will be much greater.  At OMS 09, they discussed among other things how email marketing as we know it is becoming extinct.  The results yielded are not as great as in the infant days of the Internet.  Netflix is a great example of how email marketing ought to work.  They send out emails to their members for specials, and every time someone rents a move from their online database.  The customers already have a vested interest in the messages from Netflix, and as a result, the email marketing done allows Netflix to further promote their services.

However, email marketing is not the only avenue for promoting.  Social networks are another great tool to use to get the message out.  Say you are an online flowershop, and you want to push an awareness campaign as well as receive more orders, the what you need to do is to cater to the needs of people.  The company creates a group within facebook, how to romance the lady (or gent) of their fancy, how to be romantic in different settings, where to travel, where to dine – all for free.  The money will be made from people who choose to use the company’s services.  Companies wanting to succeed in viral marketing and web 2.0, must adapt to its model.  Provide free information, tips, how to’s, and make money from the orders taken related to your product or services.  Until then, have a great Valentine’s Day with your friends, family, and loved ones.

So for all you people out there whose sole responsibility is to market the products and services of your company, I pose this question:  What is the first thing people at the top want to do when money is tight?

If you answered “cut marketing budgets” you would generally be correct.  One of the first corporate knee jerk reactions is to cut advertising and marketing dollars (and jobs) when the economy is down.  Naturally, I am making broad statements but hopefully you understand where I am going with this.  In reality, a recession is one of the best and most crucial times to market.  A company can not only gain valuable market share but use the opportunity to stay in touch with their customers.  Without effective marketing and constantly analyzing the analytics and results, how can a company know when to make adjustments.

Internet marketing is now one of the most effective ways to continually engage an audience and make them aware of your brand.  People now use the search engines more than ever to research products and services before they purchase them.  This is true for online and offline shopping.  People not only do research using the search engines but engage their online social communities for feedback from their peers.

One of the most basic aspects to marketing is to position your products to be visible where your target audience is looking.  Well, this is just as true for online marketing.  Its not just about search engine optimization and pay per click advertising anymore.  There are a vast amount of resources that can drive amazingly targeted traffic.  Proper usage of PPC, Facebook.com advertising, video optimization (YouTube.com), social media sites like Twitter, and organic SEO all can result in dramatic increases in traffic and hopefully sales.

So what does all this have to do with marketing in a down economy?

During poor economic times it is crucial to stay in touch with your audience and engage them.  Keep them aware of what your company is offering them, the incentives you bring to the table, the value you have over the competition, and what you are going to do to keep them interested in your product.  Keep in mind though that this is not the time for “smoke and mirrors”.  People want transparency.  They want to know the truth about what you are offering.  We live in a Web 2.0 world where the real information is a few clicks away, consumer ratings are available, and there are an abundance of sites that will shed the light.  So you might as well be truthful in your pitch.

Another tip is to consider offering more discounts and creating landing pages accordingly.  Many of the Internet marketing tactics necessary today will not be relevant when the economy turns, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it, right?  Now is the time to change the way you do business and the way you market to your consumers.

Social Marketing has become the latest buzz word in the internet marketing industry.  Organizations, companies, and bloggers are now using this method to convey their messages to their intended audiences effectively and quickly.  There are many tools, perhaps too many tools at their disposal to be able to create effective messages.

Some of these tools include the ever growing FaceBook, a social networking site that has grown from being exclusive to college students, to an internet marketing vehicle for companies, bloggers, and yes, even celebrities.  There are many other social networking sites besides FaceBook such as MySpace, Bebo, Xanga, and even Ning which allows you as a user to custom create your own little social network.

In addition to social networking sites there are also micro blogging sites.  These micro blogging sites such as twitter, tumblr, and Pownce (now Six Apart), have been great vehicles for launching the latest news, keeping tabs on the recent elections, and simply updating your friends and followers alike of your daily activities.  All of these tools, from social networking sites, blogging, microblogging, and doing search optimization, can become rather overwhelming for most companies, and surely so for people.  All of these tools have gotten a term coined by the marketing industry, called social marketing.  If you have a business, a blog, are a celebrity, or a large corporation, it becomes more and more important to hire professionals to do social marketing for you.

The days of getting the message out via static images in newspapers and magazines are over.  Television ads are also not as effective as before as more and more people have turned into engaged consumers, instead of passive consumers.  Consumers want to choose what to view, what to buy, and what to admire.  To become successful and get  your message out there, you need to be actively involved in all of these social marketing tools.  However, if you dedicate your time to that, you may not have the time of day to effectively run your business.  Perhaps now is the time for you to think about social media marketing by talking to people and see what they think about it, as well as do some research on your own.

Yahoo is actually the most visited website in the world because it is a content site but it currently only controls about 20% of the search market. It would make sense to combine with Microsoft and MSN which is going to be the only way they will be able to compete with Google moving forward in my opinion. Here are the most recent Comscore stats on Yahoo’s percentage of the search market:
ComScore: Yahoo! Web Search Reported Total Search Share (US)

Dec 07 22.4%
Jan 08 21.7%
Feb 08 21.2%
Mar 08 20.8%
Apr 08 19.9%
May 08 20.1%
Jun 08 19.6%
Jul 08 20.0%
Aug 08 19.7%
Sep 08 19.8%
Oct 08 20.1%
Nov 08 20.3%
Dec 08 20.5%

They really have not grown their share and with more competitors hitting the market and Google growing their monster engine, it will be tough for Yahoo moving forward. This being said, our clients at Internet Marketing Inc still get decent results and high conversions from Yahoo. In fact sometimes conversion rates are actually even higher on Yahoo than they are in Google. With the recent CEO change, I am excited to see how Yahoo grows moving forward. I actually still use them as my home page and personal search page over Google but apparently I only make up 20% of people. Check with your internet marketing company to see what search engine is right for you and your business. Odds are that it will be a combination of all the major search engines.
-Brandon

Well, its the beginning of a new year and we are already through the first month.  What goals did you have set for the first quarter?  Are you successfully executing the steps towards achieving these goals?  If you are a business owner or marketer, you may have decided to begin some new Internet marketing strategies.  If not, you will fall way behind your competition (your online and offline competition).  Even if you have current Internet marketing strategies, they may no doubt need some adjustments to remain competitive.

The days of having an effortless online presence are over.  If your company is not taking the importance of a powerful Internet presence seriously, you are in for a rude awakening.  So many companies out there still use their website as a refernce tool that they casually direct people to.  Often times it is just an online brochure or micro site.  If you are still operating with this kind of web presence, consumers will place less relevance on your business instantly.  If they can’t find you in the search engines after reading about your company or seeing some kind of offline media, you will most likely lose potential customers.

Many business owners who have finally begun to understand how imperative a solid Internet marketing strategy is, are still not willing to put a realistic budget towards impleneting it.  Internet marketing is not like placing media or buying advertising.  You are literally investing in the future of your business and growth potential of your brand.  The returns will be far reaching and long lasting.

Online marketing is also not something that should be looked at as a “we’ll put a small budget towards it and see how it goes” kind of effort.  I am not saying you have to spend tons of money either, but it has to be realistic based on the competiveness of your industry and how active your competitors are online.  The bottom line is that it is still far more cost effective than print media or other traditional marketing and the results reach far more consumers.  All companies these days are trying to figure out how to most wisely spend their marketing budgets (that have no doubt been slashed) and need to justify ever penny.  The only way to do that is to engage in measurable online marketing efforts that have a specified ROI.

Here are the questions you need to be asking yourself.  If you are a bit behind the power curve, do not worry!  It is never too late to begin and a professional Internet marketing company can help you implement all the efforts that will transform your business in 2009!

1. What kind of sales volume did my industry generate last year and how much of it was from online efforts?
2. What are my competitors doing online and how effective does it seem to be?
3. Who are my “online” competitors”?  (this may be different than your offline competitors)
4. What do I need to do to gain more market share, both offline and online?

Answering these four questions will get you started in the right direction.  Once you have this information, the work is just begnning!  It would be a good recommendation to seek out an Internet marketing company that has experience in related fields and work with them to develop a strategy.  These strategies could include some or all of the following services:  Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Par Per Click Advertisiing (PPC), Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, etc.  Of course, before you start any of this you need to do an internal “Internet marketing audit”.  This audit should incude the following questions:

1. What kind of website do I have right now and is it fulfilling my needs in any way?
2. What kind of website traffic does it receive?
3. How many pages does my site have?
4. Did the company who built my site construct it with SEO in mind?
5. How many inbound links does the site have?
6. What kind of digital assets does my company have that could be useful? (videos, streaming media, etc.)
7. What kind of email database do I have and are we using it to target and retarget our consumers?
8. If we have used SEO or PPC in the past, was it effective?

When you answer these questions you will quickly be able to determine how much work you will have to do and how long it will take to achieve results.  Many companies go through this process and realize they have a great head start!  Find out where your current Internet marketing capability is and create a plan to help reach its full potential…because I can guarantee some of your competitors are!

If you are doing business the same way you were six months ago, you may be in for a rude awakeing.  I am all for the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  However, in this new volitile environment that adage simply will not prove to be helpful.  Even if your business has not yet felt the pressure of the economy, it most likely will over the next 12 months.  Many major companies experienced fantastic growth in 2008 but are now wondering if they will enjoy the same growth in 2009.  Sometimes it just takes some time for the economy to catch up with certain industries.

I am in a professional organization for executives and business owners called Vistage.  The various “Chapters” in the organization usually have 8 to 12 members each from a different industry.  The group sessions have guest speakers and discussions about all kinds of business issues from core values to how to motivate employees.  Now the entire focus is on how to grow, maintain, or at least keep your business from going under in this rough economy.  Well guess what the newest topic on the agenda nationwide is…that’s right, Internet marketing.

Naturally all business owners are tryig to find more cost effective ways to market and sell.  Regardless of what your budgets are you simply can’t “afford” to not market.  If you are having trouble gaining market share and reaching your target audience through your current marketing channels, then NOT marketing will certainly not solve your problems.  In comes the discussions about Internet marketing and social media marketing.

In the Internet marketing industry it is our responsibility to educate businesses about how to effectively reach their audience in a more economic (and creative) way.  Internet marketing is not just more cost effective, it is actually measurable.  You simply can’t effectively measure the ROI of a print ad.  Plain and simple.  All companies need to take a very serious look at how they are spending their money as well as how their current revenue streams and strategies are helping them reach their goals.  Many companies will go through dramatic shifts over the next 6 months and the ones that survive will be better for it!