On Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Bruce Jones & Lew Sabbag; the founders of the Publishing Today Conference and Report, met at Babson College to organize a plan for helping small business owners effectively market themselves in the rapidly evolving world of Online Marketing.Our goal was to review all the marketing strategies and tactics we've been learning, testing and deploying for clients and ourselves. We found that a coordinated effort across multiple media channels has become the "must have" strategy for effective marketing no matter what size a company may be. We also agreed that educating and enabling small businesses needed to be a continuous part of the process. All the hot marketing systems are technology tools that really enable people to do amazing things but, without some good process controls, plus an engaged owner or company team, it all breaks down.
The core components start with the company website or blog. Website development with the newest CMS (content managed system) websites that can be easily updated should be a key criteria for most small to medium size business. Adding a CRM database that captures & tracks all customer interactions across your channels is essential as well. Analytics rounds out the core - If you can't measure it and improve it, why bother?
We have seen so often the struggles many small business people go through to get website changes done or pull an email and mailing list for a coordinated sales/marketing campaign.
The lost opportunities around basically capturing data and following up effectively are huge.
Once you have a solid foundation, branching out to social media marketing is the next step. Depending on the audience and business objectives, the most likely starting points are Linked In,
Facebook, Twitter & Youtube. Blogging and commenting become additional social marketing steps to engage your audience, show your expertise and create opportunities to build relationships and links.
Now that the database is growing and under control, the tribe needs to be engaged. Email marketing done well is still the workhorse for effective marketing communications. Using the appropriate email platform, complying with regulations and delivering a relevant, consistent message will make your email program a profitable practice.
So where is all this content going to come from?
THAT is the biggest challenge for small business!
Effective training in social media marketing must include how to use the tools that enable content productivity. Google Reader is a great starting point, not to mention a handheld digital camera that can capture video content that can be repurposed for blogs, YouTube and your website.
So What Now?
Our next steps with The Publishing Today Report will be to "build a road map to Internet Marketing Success" for small business and entrepreneurs. Teaching small business how to integrate and monetize the web is the what so many small businesses need to grow and prosper.
Testing for our Google FAST Start is underway as well as an email bootcamp program.
Stay tuned for updates
Lew & Bruce
