The Internet Marketing SystemforSmall Businesses and Entrepreneurspractical and realisticPaul Taylorwww.ideas-for-marketing.com

Who am IPaul Taylor25 years in marketing management and consultingworked in 20 different countriesdegrees from Oxford University and Cass Business Schoolclick for more at: (www.linkedin.com/in/marketingideas)

Introductionthis presentation will:introduce you to an internet marketing system that could dramatically improve your business performanceshow you all the channels you can use to communicate with your potential customersprovide tips, how-to’s and what-not-to-do’slink to resources for more informationgive you the ‘big picture’ perspective on internet marketing – and what steps you can take to transform your marketing effectiveness

What’s on the agenda ... ... plus 2 other mystery topics at the end!

How many people do you think click on the first result when they do a Google search?

It pays to be number 1!

First, try look through Google’s eyessearch engine position is driven by:quality of your content‘votes’ in the form of links to your site from othersbut - some votes count more than others – link weight is important

Google looks for quality independent votessearch engine position driven by:quality of your content‘votes’ in the form of links to your site from othersbut - some votes count more than others – link weight is importantLinks to your site created by you have little weight ...... unless the link is part of content ‘approved’ by a third party

So our focus is:your contentlinks to your siteHere is where we will beginkeep in your mind that the start point for many people is a search enginethey type a phrase and the results appearbut how does what you write on a web page affect your position?

But – it’s hard to get thereremember our chart, if you’re not on page 1, you almost don’t existyou are unlikely to get to page 1 on a broad search – eg golf clubsyou have to compete on specific keyword phrases – eg golf club head covers for ironsthe phrases receive fewer searches but you if you are on page 1, you get clicks

The pie may be smaller – but at least you get a slice!

It starts with keywordsundertake research to establish search phrases that you can compete onoptimize your content for these phrasescreate links to your site that use these keywordsfind out how at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/finding-niche-keywords.php

Important – you need a systemAs you will have seen on the introductory mindmap, there are many options for internet marketingIt is difficult if you just plunge inYou need a system to:keep track of what you have doneguide you in your next actionsprovide detailed and big-picture perspectivesfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/internet-marketing-resources.php

Backlinks (links to your sites) are criticalthey are a major driver of your search engine positionthey are links that people can click and so provide your site with visitorsbut remember – links differ in value – a useful indicator of the value of a link is Google PageRankfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/how-to-increase-page-rank.php

Backlink TipsDon’t go too quickly – it suggests spammingUse a multi-channel approachGoogle loves videos and blogsFocus on quality sites – more in a moment!Use a linking patternCreate quality content... let’s consider linking patterns and quality content in more detail

Link indirectlyyou should create links that point to sites that point to your sitethis gives the impression of third party approval to your site – particularly if you are clever about it!self-promotion is frowned upon – a link from you to you is worthlessa reviewed articleor popular video with a link to you counts for much moreso link to your articles and videos primarilyfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/how-to-get-backlinks.php

Content really is King!quality content drives natural human traffic – people link to you, bookmark youwhich leads to more people visiting and linkingwhich increases your search engine rankingwhich leads to more people visiting and linkinga virtuous circle

Here is where we are up toWe will now look in detail at how you can drive traffic to your site

Submit to directoriesa very common piece of advice is to submit your website to online directoriesand it is almost certainly a complete waste of timewith one exceptionhuman reviewed, achingly slow, arbitrary and frustrating – but I still rank on Google page 1 for sites in dmoz that have had no other internet promotion

Social BookmarkingSites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit have a positive impact on your rankingbut it can be very time consumingAutomate!find out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/social-bookmarking-software.php

BlogsNo technical knowledge requiredVery search engine friendlyQuickly indexed because of automatic RSS feedsCommenting allows you to create online conversationsEnables subscriptions – keep in touch automaticallyLots of plugins to extend functionalityJust do it!

Web 2.0 sitesHosted platforms enabling you to create content extremely quicklySearch engine friendlyCommunities can drive trafficShould be a major element in your internet marketing strategyfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/web-2-marketing.php

Video Marketing owns – need I say more?Sites like YouTube are high profile and allow people to comment and subscribe to your videosYou can say things differentlyVideos help to establish trust and credibilityfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/video-marketing.php

Article MarketingMany internet marketers focus solely on article marketing – why?Because at high quality article sites, the content is reviewed – so Google knows it is good – a link from an article has lots of weightAnother major element of your internet marketing strategy!find out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/article-marketing-strategy.php

Answers MarketingThere are many sites focusing on providing answers to questions – questions like “How do I get red wine out of my new carpet” or “How do I adjust the gears on my bike” or “How do I do internet marketing”And if you provide the answer, you can drive traffic to your sitefind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/yahoo-answers-marketing.php

Social Mediaextremely popular – at times they receive more traffic than Googlethey have membercommunities and promoteconnections – perfect formarketingfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/social-marketing.php

Networkingbecoming increasingly popular in businessmake sure that you create your profile and then connect it to all your other activities – blogs, twitter etcmultiple backlinks for freeand lots of people are updated automatically with your marketingactions

Online PRPress Releases can be sent to a number of online distribution services – these services may be used by journalists and with any luck, your story may be picked up and a story appear on a high profile site or in a quality publicationwell-crafted press releases can have a dramatic effect on search engine rankingthe distribution service you choose is criticalfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/using-online-pr.php

Commentingyou can achieve backlinks by commenting on blogs and in forumsyou need to find sites with high PageRankthere are many tools that can helpfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/add-comment-links.php

Here is where we are up to

Connect the dotsUse services like mybloglog and friendfeed to link all your activities togetherthis will certainly help with Yahoo searchconnect all your profiles:LinkedINTwitterFacebookYahooNingXing etc

Pingyou could sit and wait for the search engines to come and find your content or you can pingpinging is a way to let the internet know that your content has been updatedyou should ping every RSSfeed relating to your content – from blogs, videos and socialbookmarks to lenses, articlesand hubsfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/why-do-i-need-to-ping.php

Be systematicThe preceding slides – all 32 of them – should have convinced you, if you weren’t already, that you need to be organized and systematic in your internet marketing approachHere is one option you may wish to consider:www.ideas-for-marketing.com/internet-marketing-program.php

Mystery TopicsI mentioned at the beginning that there would be two mystery topics at the endThere are two incredibly important elements in the internet marketing mix that I have not yet mentioned ...

Mystery Topic 1 - NewslettersFor many internet marketers this isthe most important element in the mix -in fact, some would say the point ofall the other activities is to build youremail newsletter listyour list enables you to communicate on an on-going basis with your subscribers – they don’t have to remember to return to your website; you are in control.your list becomes the primary source of new business as you introduce new productsfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/email-newsletter-marketing.php

Mystery Topic 2 – Pay Per Clickwhy bother struggling to get to the top of Google when you can just buy your place at the top?pay per click enables even the smallest companies to compete with the big hitters on the internet – but rememberpay per click is the fastest way to make money and the quickest way to lose itfind out more at: www.ideas-for-marketing.com/effective-adwords.php

Thanks for your time – any feedback gratefully receivedLots more resources on my website – particularly on how you can increase your productivity and effectiveness by automating much of your internet marketing