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This is a common need in today's evolving landscape. Many traditional market segments are shrinking, aging, or unfortunately dying. In almost every board meeting I've seen, this same issue and question comes up.

How do we reach a younger audience?

Some said email - but "experts" say young people don't use email anymore. They text.

Then they tried using SMS messages, only to find out very few are going to place an order in class.

Many have used facebook. This is a good way to build and communicate with an audience. But success can be fleeting, and conversion to order is many times too slow.

Try this graphic on for size
Students Love Technology
Via: OnlineEducation.net

If you took the 15 minutes to read and decipher the graphic...

You may be left with a puzzled look on your face. So, which technology will reach the most younger customers? How can I invest in these methods to communicate with them? Will they respond?

My Opinion Differs from the Norm

For decades, marketers have been trying to figure out how to get young people to be interested in their product or business. The real question they should be asking is how can their product or business adapt to be interesting to them. People respond to items they need, want, desire, or crave - the channel which drives it is as irrelevant as whether your printing press has moveable type!

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Social media opens a ton of possibilities and new ways to share and connect with customers. Many organizations have discovered its incredible power at mobilizing support and political change. We've seen it's impact in:

  • 2008 Presidential Campaign electing Barak Obama
  • Revolution in Egypt
  • Getting Betty White on SNL

At Spartan, we're strong supporters of using Social Media for communication, business development and engaging and rallying people online. While a few years ago, many organizations assumed that simply hiring a young kid out of college who "understands this stuff" was a way to capitalize on this medium, it is no longer the case. No matter the campaign, there are always potential hiccups that can arise. These absolutely require the expertise of a business professional with the ability to foresee all possible results.

This is the tale of one social media campaign gone horribly, horribly wrong...

(We should note, our opinions about this situation are unrelated to the political and personal issues attached to the issue it surrounds).

The campaign was started by NARAL, with the goal of creating an online petition. Their campaign announcement can be found on their site (http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/get-involved/stupak-on-steroids/war-on-women-photo-petition.html)

The plans to mobilize support are summarized as:

  • Print a page from their website
  • Take a picture of yourself with it
  • Send that picture via email to an address
  • That picture with automatically be posted to the flickr account

I can almost see the conversation in the conference room in planning this.

Marketing Person: We need a way to use this social media thing!

Bright-Eyed Intern: We could start a facebook page.

Marketing Person: But won't we have to constantly fill the page with content and info?

Bright-Eyed Intern: Yes, but doing that would get people to "like" us on facebook.

Marketing Person: Sure, but we'd have to pay someone to constantly monitor the site, add pictures, news, etc. We're not going to spend that kind of money. There's got to be a way we can just let people share their voice themselves.

Bright-Eyed Intern: Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, just saw something on my smartphone... Oohh, I know, here's what we can do. We can let people post pictures of themselves directly to our page on Flickr. So, we just get an announcement to everyone to send a picture to our account - with just an email address - we can have the pictures automatically appear.

Marketing Person: Well, I'll let you sort out the details - but since other people can just post what they want and we don't have to pay someone to monitor it, it sounds good. Plus, we can tell the execs that we're using Social Media!

Bright-Eyed Intern: Great - I'll have it up by lunch!

The mock-conversation is clearly fictional, but we can all probably relate to many of the sentiments it satirically portrays.

There are some good elements to the plan:

  • Makes the barrier to entry low - it is incredibly easy to participate
  • There was no cost - it uses widely used and free tools

Unfortunately, some very important elements that would have been obvious to an expert in the field or any seasoned business professional were missed.

  • The photos are immediately loaded to the page they control
  • The viral nature of the program means everyone - including the "opposition" - know about it
  • Opposing groups can mobilize their Social Media audience and flood the page

So, what happened so far?

  1. The campaign was reported on an opposing organization's website (http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/whats-that-naral-put-a-face-on-the-debate-you-say-you-got-it/)
  2. Another group- one started and run by a youthful organization - caught wind of the campaign.
  3. This group urged their fans and followers to flood the campaign with their own support and campaign images (Facebook-LiveAction

When it first began, there were a few thousand images posted by supporters of NARAL - roughly under 3,500. When the above action was started, the manager of the Flickr Page spent a few hours trying to keep up with deleting the images that weren't in line with their goal. As far as we can tell, at about 5:00 PM, the deletions stopped - either because the person when home or realized the onslaught wasn't going to stop.

As of this morning, at 9 AM Eastern, there were over 40,000 images in the photostream. A quick scan shows that almost all of the additions were not the intended type of images. As of 9:45 AM Eastern, there were around 36,000 images, meaning someone must be trying to delete them once more.

In addition, the page announcing the campaign by NARAL (linked above) has an automatic stream of the Flickr account - meaning there are thousands of Pro-Life images streaming through their page...

What everyone can learn from this

  • Be ready for anyone to post on your social media presence, and have a plan to address it
  • Weigh the things that could happen along with what should happen
  • If your plan is to delete/remove things you don't want - be ready to stay late at the office
  • Just because something can be done "automatically" doesn't mean it always should.

We're interested to see how this continues. As a Social Media expert, there is no good way out of this situation for NARAL, and I am glad to not have to solve this problem now. At Spartan, we would have solved it by foreseeing this and having proper plans in place to prevent the issue.

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Are you confident in your Social Media strategy? I've found that people tend to answer this question in two ways. A large segment of the online businesses will report "Definitely Not". The other largest segment, although a very small total, indicate "Yes". In reviewing the actual programs and campaigns of those segments, there are two overwhelming observations that bubble to the top.

Businesses who are not confident in their social media strategy are well positioned to succeed.

  • They know what they don't know, therefore making them open to change.
  • Their hesitation to jump in opens an opportunity for a strong start.
  • They are watching market trends to identify the best place to start.

Being involved with these companies is a very exciting opportunity. They recognize the tremendous potential the social media channels can offer, and strive to be strategic about their interactions. Many of us would simply laugh at the idea of starting a business with no product to sell, revenue to gain, or plan to get there. Yet, hundreds and thousands of businesses have a "social media strategy" that entails nothing more than having a page or group on Facebook.com or a Twitter.com account.

Businesses who recognize the immense potential of reaching over 120 Million monthly visitors (according to compete.com ) on Facebook requires careful planning. This week, I was speaking with some folks from a great agency located in Michigan, DDM Marketing & Communications. They are an organization that understands the potential of social media for business, and are actively working to set strategies for clients that meet the clients' business needs. To quote the Principal, "Anyone can create a Facebook Page in 15 minutes, our smarter clients understand it takes more than just a page". Exellent observation, which unfortunately is overlooked by many.

What makes a good Social Media strategy that inspires confidence in the business?

  • Understand Social Media is a commitment, not simply a campaign.
  • Align the strategy with the business objectives.
  • Invest time, resource and money into growth.

Businesses who are confident in their Social Media strategy are most often missing trememdous opportunities.

Simply having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. doesn't mean your strategy is solid. It means only that you've started something.

Measuring your success based on the number of followers, connections, fans or "likes" is an equally unvaluable metric. This only suggests the pool of prospects more readily available to you.

Understanding the visitors, conversions, leads and comments from your social network outreach is a step in the right direction. These often are the start of an effective engagement and monetization strategy, they are only valuable when aligned with the business strategy.

Are you confident in your social media strategy?

If you've read this entire page, you probably realize the expected answer is "no". Regardless, your success online depends on making sure customers and prospects can locate you, wherever and whenever they want.

Contact Spartan today to find out how you can dip your toe in the water in this wide open ocean of opportunity.

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It's very easy to get so caught up in the strategy, enhancements, special functionality, etc. online that simple things fall under the rug. We at Spartan some of that this week. Everyone learns from each other; sometimes earth-shattering revelations, sometimes not. Today, this is one of those humdrum bits of knowledge.

As more and more people are visiting, reading and learning from the regular online marketing and ecommerce business strategies, we're happy to see the volume of comments on new posts increase as well. After a bit of time patting myself on the back for such engaging posts, it became obvious there were two important items related to our blog's commenting functionality. One was working perfectly, the other was just plain non-existent!

We are proud to have the blog of Spartan hosted by WordPress.org. One of the great features built directly into the tool allows for moderation of comments. Wisely, we had decided to allow readers to make comments, but before they become live on the site, someone must approve them to appear. As long as you remain close to the blackberry or computer, comments can be easily reviewed and approved.

The second excellent feature unfortunately was not in use. Many websites deploy some form of CAPTCHA functionality. What's that? These are the slightly aggravating images with text you must enter into a box before your post can proceed. These systems are very effective at preventing spam and other automated comments. There are numerous free and effective tools to take care of this. But... the Spartan website wasn't using any of them, until NOW!

Effective websites will engage readers, entice them to continue to read and return, and most important - make a purchase. Don't neglect the small things that make this not only possible, but far less of a headache.

If you have questions about how to eliminate spam posts, or how to begin allowing your customers to comment on your website, contact Spartan today.

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Well, that sure is an easy question to answer...

Why Not?

Seriously, there are some considerable benefits to blogging, as a company. Sure, we all likely have one (or two, or three...) blogs, as well as a personal facebook profile. Many also have a LinkedIn profile in the unlikely event of a change in the economy... However, very few businesses have realized the power of a blog from their company.

Creating and maintaining an open blog for your company will generate additional revenue.

Perhaps difficult to believe, but in my experience, this is entirely true. A number of factors prove this to be true, but the highlights are:

  • Producing online content in a blog offers another opportunity for your site to appear to web searchers
  • Blog content is more readily available for others (including search engines) to drive traffic to your site
  • Blogs can more easily be syndicated to additional sites online expanding your reach
  • It really is the customers who make a difference - and making a personal connection takes your business a long way.

First, this chart from emarketer's recent report shows the clear trend in increased corporate blogging. Notice the rapid growth of the trend. Of course, just because everyone else is doing it isn't necessarily the best reason to jump off the bridge, or blog wagon...

Here are just a few examples to prove this point.

More chances to be seen

Provided your blog is posted at a different domain than your main site, and does a good job of linking between itself and your marketing and e commerce sites, you can gain extra visibility. Blogs tend to have more content than your promotional site, and tend to be updated more regularly. Therefore, by hosting a blog, more content is posted more regularly, improving your chances of discovery.

Smart Web Users will see you quickly

The past few years have given rise to continued enhancements and new features in search. Many smart business owners are using basic web tools for reputation management (more on this some other time). Posting content in a blog almost ensures more visibility through those notifications.

By way of example, I personally use the "Google Alert" program to monitor several specific queries and types of content online. In the tool, Google sends an email (or RSS message) when content matching the parameters is posted. This is a great way to keep tabs on competition, customers, or trends in your market.

A few days ago, a post went up on this site linking to, and discussing, the website DailyGrommet.com. Since Jules and her team are on the ball, they very quickly saw the post, and proceeded to comment on the article. You can see the post and comments for Sneaky or Smart. (If you're watching, thanks again Jules for such a fine example!)

What's the point here? Those who run the website have their act together, so likely have little need of my help or expertise. However, merely by posting a blog with a mention and link to their site, they stumbled upon the site, engaged, and opened a conversation which otherwise wouldn't happen.

Open to syndication

Because most blogging platforms rely on fairly basic functionality, they have some built-in features that are prime for standardization. Most blogging tools (wordpress, typepad, blogger are all best bets) all include basic RSS functionality.

Let's not scare ourselves with RSS - Really Simple Syndication - it happens automatically as a part of these tools. The value in these for this discussion is simple. Each blog post you make generates a new entry in the RSS feed.

This means by blogging, you can instantly have a universally usable file of your blog content to send to another website as free content (in trade for acknowledging and linking to your site).

Customers Love You

Gone are the days of one-way conversations where businesses, magazines, experts, etc. speak unidirectionally and we poor consumers take their word for it. The advent of social media, user ratings, etc. forces honesty in business. As a pleasant side effect, it gives us a direct connection to our consumers.

A client of ours recently noticed in reviewing her website activity something that surprised her. The articles, posts, images, etc. that were most often clicked, shared or commented were those showing her personal travels and experiences. We all like to drink from the fountain of our own wisdom, yet consumers who look to us gain far more trust in us... not only our products.

Not sure how to get started with your own blog platform or strategy?

Contact Spartan to learn some options today.

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Where do you focus your sales and marketing efforts?

Many businesses have traditionally selected either marketing directly to consumers or sales to trade/distributors. Prior to the blossoming of the internet, the primary choice had been to focus marketing effort on retailers and distributors of the product, who then invest their efforts and money into selling the products.

For decades, if someone wished to purchase an album from their favorite band, it was necessary to either find it in the stores, or pay to go to the concert where it might be sold. As a consumer, when I need to replace my dishwasher, the point of purchase will be a retail store. Of course, now there are dozens of research options to decide what option is best before heading to the store.

This distribution-reliant model in the current economic turbulence is wreaking havoc on most businesses. Due to depressed sales at Barnes & Noble , many book publishers have been shrinking staff, shrinking the amount of new products produced, and experiencing financial difficulties. Consumers instead are purchasing these products digitally through devices such as the ipad and kindle.  Yet this model is still based on the retailers' ability to sell the product to consumers, and continues to press the entire industry.

Some forward-thinking businesses are beginning to realize what successful marketers have known for quite some time. Marketing effort must be spent on both trade and consumer awareness. For example, no matter how hard you try, it is impossible to purchase a cold, refreshing Bud Light at Budweiser.com. Yet, it would be difficult to go a day without seeing some form of advertisement for a product they sell. Legal and logistical issues likely prevent direct sales from Budweiser, but they've come as close as possible to selling product directly to consumers.

I just read a recent spread on some new developments in New York's Fashion Week. The highly-visible, yet exclusive event has inspired fashion-lovers with the newest products from the new designers. The goal of the event has been to generate some consumer buzz, but is primarily an event to drive interest among buyers who will distribute the products. While quite effective, consumers then are left hunting for a way to start wearing the new fashions before everyone else. Now, many of the designers are hosting their own events, streaming the show live, and offering direct sales online - During The Show!

We can learn a lot from many aspects of the changing business and opportunities here.

  • If your business relies on sales to distributors or retailers to meet its bottom-line goals, start looking for alternatives.
  • It is not sufficient to merely drive interest among the buyers and retailers. Consumer desire for your products will ensure your distribution does increase.
  • Consumers love you and your products. There is little risk, but huge upside potential, in allowing your customers to purchase your product directly from you.
  • Whether difficult economic situations or just the desire to grow, it is critical to look for new means to reach consumers directly.

Are you investing in advertising and marketing directly to consumers? If not, contact Spartan to find out how you can move ahead in the game.

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Answer this question for yourself: "Is it wrong to promote a product that is high quality, good for consumers, and really does what it promises?" Of course not! Yet, many businesses feel this is some sort of taboo if the business also profits from the promotion of the product.

What am I talking about you may ask? There is a very interesting article today from the New York Times. You should check it out for some pleasure reading. But here's the synopsis.

  • Successful online business, Daily Grommet has a unique model
  • Every weekday, the site posts a new product selection
  • The products are selected by the Daily Grommet team
  • All products are created, manufactured, marketed by another company
  • Professional demonstrations, videos, and information highlight the product's value
  • Customers can then buy the product

Since Daily Grommet doesn't make or produce the products, you may be asking yourself a basic question. "What is so strange about this? Every media and product review company does this."

Yes, but here's the kicker. According to the Daily Grommet's website, "We're independent—no one pays us to select a product. "  That is surely a 100% true statement. Yet, a percentage of the sale of each item made through the Daily Grommet's website goes to... The Daily Grommet.

This post is not to denigrate the website, the work they are doing, or to call anyone out on the carpet. Rather, this is Pure Genius! Many businesses have a lot to learn from their business model. Here's what they're doing that can be a lesson to all of us:

  1. Consumers hunger for unbiased opinions on new products, old products, or anything they can use to improve their satisfaction. By creating this website, they have manufactured a true, unbiased authority who provides consumers guidance.
  2. Social-sharing is built into the model. Every step of the way, readers and consumers on the site can see ways to share their experiences with each other, and to share the recommendations with their network of friends
  3. Affiliate Marketing is a viable business opportunity. Rather than building products to sell consumers, these folks have decided they can make more profit by promoting other people's products.
  4. By establishing trust, consumers return for the latest recommendations.
  5. The schedule of new content is consistent. By posting the new review each day, at the same time, consumers' expectations are met, and I imagine Daily Grommet's business metrics become very easy to predict.

Kudos to the folks at Daily Grommet!

How are you using innovative strategies and making money without selling your own products and services directly?

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The last time we checked the news, we were still in the midst of a major economic and financial recession. Pundits and politicians can try to claim otherwise, yet those of us in small business continue to feel the ever-present crunch of declined spending and non-existent sources of capital. Yet, some interesting news has come across my desk that makes my jaw drop.

I picked up this story from the folks at Mashable ,where you can read the full story. The scoop details information that was accidentally leaked in some documents from Google, showing how much major advertisers are spending for Google's Advertising solutions.  The figures are significant, as one would expect for an organization and revenues the size of these companies.

Some of those that jumped out at me were:

  • BP Spending $3.9 Million, in contrast to spending only $57K the two months before the spill
  • Amazon's expense of $5.89 Million, although they are one of the most known online stores in the world
  • ADT Security invested $2.19 Million

Note, these stats are all as reported for single-month spending, during June 2010.

Many of you will never spend that much to market your business over its entire lifetime. That's OK. However, there are a few things we can and should learn from these huge expenditures.

BP was willing to do virtually anything following the Gulf Disaster to keep itself in the news with positive branding. One could surely question whether this investment was a wise business investment. If they instead chose to spend $3.5 Million of that money directly helping those affected by the disaster, they very likely could have generated far more positive press.

However, we should all take note than Online Marketing, specifically Paid Search (SEM) has a useful place in the realm of Public Relations and Brand Management.

Amazon is arguably the most well-known online brand outside of the search engines themselves. Virtually any web search for a book, and now most products, returns a listing from Amazon in the Organic (Free) rankings. Many companies fall prey to the belief that an expense in Paid Search is only necessary when not appearing in the Organic/Natural search rankings. I cannot state emphatically enough, this is not the case.

Paid Search Marketing and Organic Search Rankings are complementary, not mutually exclusive. By appearing in free and sponsored positions, consumers' trust increases, and success skyrockets.

ADT seems a very interesting story, given their position and market. ADT, a division of Tyco, could easily focus their marketing investments on more traditional sources. You probably remember the days of receiving mailers offering a free security system, or receiving a phone call offering a free system installation if you just put a sign in your yard. There is still some of that, but I suspect the investments in those programs have declined.

These are just my suppositions, but it appears ADT is making a wise decision to invest in the area where their potential customers are spending their time, and perhaps feeling the need for security. News consumption on the web continues to grow - and with that comes greater awareness of the safety concerns for individuals and families. While that home invasion in Colorado is quite far from your couch in South Carolina, emotionally readers are reminded of the dangers in their area. So, by investing in search marketing, those consumers who might now be thinking a bit more about their home and family safety are more receptive to their message.

Make sure your investments seek out customers where they are, and when they are likely to purchase. Continuing to do the same old thing that "always worked" will cease working over time, necessitating agressive attempts for new channels of marketing.

What are you doing to capture customers through Search Engine Marketing?

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Your hunt for expert, efficient ebusiness information and services may be over. Now that you've found Spartan, your online business is one step closer to the growth and success you've strived to find.

Whether you need an online strategy, a little help with some details, or perhaps just an expert voice in the industry, Spartan will provide that to you . Look around our website sections to find both information on services and helpful tips to expand your business for free.

Contact us today for any questions, or to find out how you can get your business running efficiently toward success.

Plus, register for a free site evaluation and you're business will never be the same!

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Building solid and loyal customers take patience, time, and a lot of effort. This must be a primary component of your online strategy. Yet, let's be honest. Sometimes, we just need visitors to the site, and we need them NOW!

What can you do to drive 1,000 new customers in a day, guaranteed?

Spend money

We should reiterate, sustainable and profitable website traffic comes as a result of a solid online strategy, and specific customer retention efforts. Short-term blasts of traffic in most cases result in short-term success. However, using some paid methods to drive specific interest in a hot promotion can be a valuable component of your strategy.

In our experience, Google's AdWords program is the most predictable and legitimate source of paid visitors online. You can read more about Google AdWords here  .

Why it might make sense for you

These are the most important elements of the program for your business success.

  1. Pay for performance. You only pay for visitors that actually come to your site.
  2. Control of your advertising. The promotional content and the keywords or phrases that trigger your ads are entirely within your control.
  3. Budget protection. There is nothing worse than discovering you've blown your budget by 10 AM. The Google tool makes it very easy for you to limit the total amount you will spend in a single day, by capping the total amount and evenly spreading it throughout the day.
  4. Access to all online searchers. Although you only serve your ad to people who search for keywords you purchase, Google's network covers the largest number of people online.

What negatives to consider

  1. Competitive situation. If you are selecting keywords in a very competitive space (such as electronics, finance, health), the price per click can be quite high. Take a hard look at the keywords you are purchasing to ensure the price will allow you to make a profit.
  2. Broad keyword selections. While it can be tempting to select very general terms (like "bookstore" if you sell books), these terms tend to produce very high cost and virtually no return. When researching your keywords, focus on terms that are general enough to drive significant volume, yet more specifically tied to your individual products.

Need help with your strategy?

These online tools offer solid assistance for those exploring entry into Google Keyword Advertising.

Or, contact Spartan today and we'll sort it all out for you.