Internet Marketing Course BLOG

By Karen Gedney
Clickz B2B Email Marketing

“One of the best ways to get a prospect to act immediately is to offer an incentive. In business-to-business (B2B), the usual suspects are:

* Free information offers, such as white paper downloads
* Online gift certificates in small denominations, such as $10 Amazon.com gift certificates
* Drawings for higher-value gift certificates, such as $250 American Express Certificates

The above work well, depending on your audience and strategy. Sometimes, you want to try something a little different.

Here are two premiums I’ve used lately in e-mail that performed well (though actual results are confidential).”

To read the entire article, click on the following link:
http://www.clickz.com/experts/em_mkt/b2b_em_mkt/article.php/3515866

By Jennifer Laycock
Search Engine Guide

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Jennifer outlines a no nonsense, down-to-earth way for small businesses to get started with, and then to get the most out of their search engine marketing efforts.

“One of the most common reasons that I hear small business owners give about why they are not undertaking search engine marketing is that it’s too much work and it costs too much money. While there’s no arguing that both time and money are involved in proper search engine marketing, many companies overlook the fact that a little bit of time and a lot of perseverance can have just as much of an impact as a lot of work up front.

The “take-your-time” approach to search engine marketing can work whether you want to take on your search marketing in-house, or even if you want to farm it out to a specialist. Here’s how it works.

Farming it out to Professional Search Marketers

While many search marketing firms prefer to do all of the optimization work for a client up front and then charge a maintainence fee for keeping an eye on the listings, there are some that are willing to be more flexible with their offerings. Some SEM firms are more than happy to take on a client on a retainer basis. The idea behind a retainer is that you are paying the company to work on your site for a certain number of hours each month. A retainer deal for organic optimization on a small site may break down like this:

1 hour a month of keyword research
2 hours a month of copywriting/editing
2 hours a month of code changing/page building
2 hours a month of link building
——————————————————————–
7 hours a month of search marketing at anywhere from $50 – $250 an hour = $350 – $1650 a month

This type of retainer deal should get you a couple of pages of new content each month, each targeting one or two keyword phrases. It should also get you some ongoing link building, which will have a cumulative effect on helping your site rank better. The real benefit of this method is that it lets you start seeing results before you have committed a large amount of money, a true blessing for business owners that just aren’t sure about how well search marketing will work for them.”

Read the entire article by clicking on the following link:
http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/004860.html

By Jennifer Laycock
Search Engine Guide

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): This question have a familiar ring to it? Whether is does or not, my advice is to read this short article to see if you’ve already fallen victim to the online marketing mistake!

“The carpenter who built your house is not necessarily the right person to sell it. If you want to see real return on your webmaster’s creation, we recommend they not be the person involved in marketing the site.

Many online businesses are more than happy to leave the aspects of marketing their web site to the person who developed the site – their web master. While it’s true that developing and optimizing a website involves a fair amount of technical knowledge, a professional search engine marketer should be the person developing your search marketing strategy, not your webmaster.

The recent MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Metrics survey showed that sites which include organic search engine marketing experienced an average increase on conversions by 158%.

Clearly defined marketing that focuses on the features and benefits of your product/service, concentration on retaining and up selling customers and defining your unique selling proposition are aspects of marketing that most webmasters have little or no experience in.

If indeed your webmaster is calling the shots and making your SEM decisions, here are a few questions to ask them to address to rate their marketing savvy-ness…”

Read the entire article by clicking on the following link:
Is Your Webmaster Making Your Company’s Marketing Decisions?