Web Marketing Course for Small Business

It's hard to think about school starting up while classic rock stations still have Alice Cooper's anthem on heavy rotation.

Even if you're not quite ready to shop for back-to-school fashions, it's never too early to register for Web Marketing for Small Business, the four-week, eight-hour course I teach at the University of Southern Maine through their Center for Continuing Education.

If you're a small business owner, marketer, or thinking about starting your own business, you can't go wrong with this course. We'll review:

• Search engine optimization
• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
• E-commerce tips
• Web site analytics and
• How to build a Web site that sells

If you're wondering why your competitors rank higher than you, or how you can leverage your Web site to grow your business, than you should register for Web Marketing for Small Business.

Just remember to bring your teacher an apple.

Rich Brooks
Checking My Seat for Tacks as We Speak

What is Holistic Web Marketing?

What is Holistic Web Marketing? At flyte we use this model to explain our integrated approach to online success. A static Web site is no longer enough; you need a coordinated Web marketing strategy to reach the widest audience possible.

Holistic Web marketing consists of four parts:

• Attraction: How to drive quality traffic to your Web site. [Tools: search engine optimization, blogging, social media]
• Retention: How to keep the conversation going after they’ve left your site. [Tools: email marketing, social media]
• Conversion: How to get people to make a buying decision at your site, whether it’s clicking on a “Buy Now” button, completing a contact form, or picking up the phone. [Tools: web site]
• Measurement: How to analyze your traffic to make ongoing improvements to both your Web site and your Internet marketing for better results. [Tools: analytics]

We believe that you need to address and integrate all four pieces of Holistic Web Marketing for long-term success.

On Thursday, May 14th at 12pm EDT, I'll be leading a one hour Webinar (plus 30 minutes of Q&A) examining how small businesses can use the holistic Web marketing model to grow their own business. We'll look at search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging, social media and your own Web site as tools to increase online visibility, drive more qualified leads to your site, and generate more online business.

The cost of the Webinar is normally $49, but if you enter coupon code "theeconomystinks" you'll save $15. That's our stimulus package to you.

Learn more and register now!

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Biz

Autoresponder Limits on Constant Contact

On a long ago post I talked about Constant Contact vs. some other email newsletter services. Recently, "DannyeW" left the following comment:

According to the woman at Constant Contact, they only allow 5 messages with their autoresponder system....CC is much better which is why I was hoping to use them for my ezine and to build my list. However, I also need more than 5 message to send out ecourses, etc.
Advice?

Since my original post is so old, I figured I'd "elevate" the comment to a fresh post.

I hadn't used the autoresponder yet from Constant Contact (CC) so I went to investigate. It appears DannyeW is right: there is currently a limit of five messages (emails) you can send out from a single autoresponder. Although I'd like CC to remedy this, here's something you can do yourself.

If you have more than 5 messages you'd like to send via autoresponder, employ the cliff hanger approach: in the fifth email tease the answer or solution you offer, but only to those who sign up for the 2nd batch of autoresponders.

I wouldn't try this more than once, and I'd let subscribers know that they won't have to resubscribe again.

Not a perfect solution, but you will find that those who sign up for both autoresponders will turn out to be your best prospects.

If you'd like to give Constant Contact a free spin you can do so now.

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing Guy

Marketing is Your Stimulus Package

You may not be surprised to find out that home sales are down. Car sales are down. People are less likely to go out for dinner, or to the movies, or to buy a new HDTV.

But here's the thing: people are still buying homes. People are still buying cars. In the last month I've seen people eating out, enjoying a movie, and going to see a show. In fact, during my short commute I often see big HDTVs in the windows of the houses I pass.

In other words, the economy has not stopped. People still need your products and services. Maybe not as many as before the economy tanked, and maybe they're taking longer to make a buying decision, but people are buying.

So, who are they buying from?

As the pool of potential buyers dries up, a lot of businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach, or retrenching, or coming up with other euphemisms for putting their head in the sand and waiting for some stimulus package to make everything alright.

Does that describe your approach?

Are people buying from the companies that have curtailed their advertising spending? That have stopped blogging? That aren't putting any money into search engine optimization?

An economic downturn can be a boon for many companies: those of us who realize this is the time to market, to blog, to improve one's search engine visibility. (I'm still not sold on advertising, but it depends on your business.)

As the pendulum swings further into the recession there may be a knee-jerk reaction to cut your advertising and marketing budget. Unfortunately, you'll miss out on the opportunities that are going on right now.

By continuing to market your products you'll continue to get sales in the downturn, and you'll be in a better position to take advantage when things turn around. (And yes, they will turn around.)

Marketing doesn't have to be expensive. Improving your site's search engine visibility, or blogging more often, or sending out a few more email newsletters, or engaging in social media can all be low-cost, high-return ways of staying ahead in a down economy.

Let your competition bide their time and lick their wounds; you should use this opportunity to find new customers and new opportunities.

Rich Brooks
Marketing is Your Stimulus Package

Web Marketing Course for Entrepreneurs and Small Business

I can't believe that we're just one week away from the first class of Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business over at the University of Southern Maine.

Well, actually I can, as I spent most of yesterday afternoon updating and revamping the search engine optimization content for the class. And I've blocked out plenty of hours this week to review the rest of my content and build out the social media component. But the "I can't believe" part stresses the fact that it's only a week away, and if you were planning on coming you've got to get a move on.

Who should go? Well, you should be in driving distance of Portland, Maine. (Yes, one of these days I'll create an online version, but not today.) Assuming that you can get to the campus, this course is geared to small business owners, marketers and entrepreneurs who are looking to build a Web presence to grow their business.

Topics will include search engine visibility (how do you out rank your competition,) email marketing, business blogs, social media, e-commerce, and building a Web site that will convert prospects into customers.

The course is held over four Monday nights, 11/10/2008 - 12/1/2008, from 6pm - 8pm at the Abromson Center on the campus of the University of Southern Maine (directions.) The cost is $205, but you need to pre-register for the class, so...

Register Now!

We'll be spending class time reviewing students' current Web sites (when applicable) and making on the spot recommendations to help you rank higher, drive more qualified leads to your site, and convert more prospects into customers. So what are you waiting for?

Register Now!

Rich Brooks
Oh Captain, Your Captain

Use Multiple Channels to Reach More People

This week I sent out Does Your Small Business Really Need a Social Media Strategy through our email newsletter, flyte log.

My friend, Josh Hurley, sent me this screen capture that showed my email had ended up in his spam folder:

Hell, I got lucky here. Many ISPs have such tight junk mail protection that the email may not have even reached Josh in the first place. But, as I told Josh, email wasn't my only delivery vehicle.

• I archived this article on my Web site
• I blogged about the article here and on the Internet Marketing 101 blog I write for MaineBusiness.com
• I Tweeted about it on at least two occasions, and used Ping.fm so that my message would also update my Facebook page, my Plurk account, and a half dozen other sites where my status gets updated.

I can't control every junk filter out there, just like I can't control when the bridge will go up and make me late for work. However, by having multiple distribution channels I can reach a wider audience and get past more gatekeepers. It's all about the redundancy.

Rich Brooks
You Can Say That Again

Email Marketing Wish List: What Email Newsletter Companies Should Offer

I'm a big fan of Constant Contact for email marketing, but that doesn't mean you can't improve on a good thing. Here's my wish list for a perfect email marketing service provider.

• Flexible HTML templates that can be updated without HTML knowledge. Entrepreneurs and small business people should be able to choose a template, make some quick changes (upload a logo, change fonts and colors, etc.)
• Ability to create or enhance standard HTML templates. Those with advanced design and coding skills should be able to go "under the hood" and make additional changes to the templates. This gives Web designers the opportunity to create non-cookie-cutter solutions for their clients. (And a big reason flyte uses Constant Contact.)
• Ability to do A/B split testing. This is email marketing, after all. I should be able to quickly create a split so that I can test the efficacy of competing subject lines or calls-to-action. (This is missing from Constant Contact and probably my biggest pet peeve.)
• Ability to track different signup paths to an ezine and give appropriate confirmation and welcome messages based on those signups. In other words, I want to know if it's my blog or Web site that is generating more signups. Plus, it would be nice to know if people are subscribing to flyte log because of a particular article (10 Questions to Ask Before Setting up a Web Site or The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make) or just signing up through a signup box on our site. These are important marketing questions that will help drive my business thinking down the road.
• Ability to track down people who filed spam reports and beat them about the head and neck. I mean, who are these people? I run a double opt-in mailing list. You can't get on my list without subscribing on our site and then clicking on a confirmation link. That's not spam, that's free choice! If you no longer want to receive the ezine then unsubscribe! Geez....

OK, I'm sure there are other items that belong on the wish list. What do you look for/want out of an email service provider?

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Small Business

Growing Your Ezine Subscriber Base

Do you have an email subscribe box on your Web site? Does it languish there, underused and under-appreciated? Do you wonder how you can get more site visitors to opt-in to your mailing list?

If so, you may enjoy this video I put together about how to use email bait on your site to encourage people to subscribe to your ezine.

If you can't view this video, or God forbid, you want to see it larger, you can watch the video at Blip.TV.

Start your own email marketing campaign with Constant Contact.

Rich Brooks
Email Marketing for Small Business

Learn Internet Marketing in Maine This Fall

For those living in or near southern Maine who are looking to learn more about using Internet Marketing to grow your business, you may be in luck.

I'll be teaching a 4 class course on Web Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business at the University of Southern Maine. I've taught this course a few times before, and it continues to evolve. This time around there will be more time given to social media and how you can use it to leverage your brand and connect with prospects and customers. We'll look at YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and more.

As in the past, we'll also spend time on what I consider the building blocks of Web marketing:

• Search Engine Optimization: how to improve your search engine visibility through keyword rich content and incoming links.
• Business Blogs: how a blog can increase visibility, improve rankings, and establish you as an expert.
• Email Marketing: how to build a subscriber base in a world that has too many ezines already.

And we'll look at traffic reports (analytics), podcasting, and building a Web site that converts prospects into customers.

Dates & Times: 4 Mondays, November  10-December  1, 6-8 p.m.        

Cost: $205 (8 contact hours/ 0.8 CEUs)        
Place: Abromson Center, 88 Bedford Street, USM Portland campus (directions)

Register Now!

Rich Brooks
Small Business Web Marketing Expert

Web Marketing Seminar in Rockport, Maine

Would you like to drive more qualified leads to your Web site?

Would you like to rank higher at the search engines?

Would you like to land more business?

Then come to Building Traffic At Your Web Site, a Web marketing seminar being held at the beautiful Carver Hill Gallery in Rockport, Maine this April 1st. (No foolin'.)

Search engines, blogs, and email newsletters can all drive new and returning visitors to your site where you can get them to take action...whether it’s to pick up the phone, fill out a contact form, or buy now!

Is this Web marketing seminar for you?

Yes, if you're looking to grow your business or organization by using the Web. Small business owners, marketers and non-profit directors will all learn specific tips and tricks to drive more qualified traffic to your site.

Attendees will learn:

• How to rank higher at the search engines
• How a business blog can drive traffic to your Web site
• How to get incoming links
• How to get visitors to sign up for your email newsletter
• Which tools can help you measure your success

Date: Tuesday, April 1st
Time: Noon - 1:30pm
Place: Caver Hill Gallery, Rockport, Maine (directions)
Cost: $50, includes lunch

Seating is limited, so register now!

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing Stylist