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I’ve been on-site a lot during the last couple of weeks in talks with one of my clients about their Internet marketing strategy. I enjoy these types of meetings because they are a great opportunity to throw everything at a whiteboard, no idea is too outlandish and everyone has an opportunity to be involved in the growth of their business.

There were some really inspired ideas, some were easy to implement while others required a little more thought and some understanding of the business processes. This is not unusual, what you want when you’re thinking about your Internet marketing strategy is a selection of ideas; some of which can be introduced immediately and have an immediate effect, whilst others you can work on in the background.

We’ve been working with this client for a number of years now, fortunately we know what their objectives are for their site and we can try to ensure that whatever is formally entered into their Internet marketing strategy has a direct impact on this. However it is an interesting point, how often do you see conversations about strategy before the objectives have been agreed.

In our opinion, the question of “Why do you have a web site and what do you want to achieve from it?” is fundamental to Internet marketing. As once you know this anything in your Internet marketing strategy can be linked to achieving these goals. Most companies we speak with understand this, what they are looking for from their digital marketing agency is for them to earn their money and come up with ways to get the most from their site.

So now that you know what you want to achieve from your web site, the question is what does one do from a marketing perspective to meet these goals? The short answer to this question is lots, including the usual SEO/SEM and keyword analysis all the way through to creating video content and content. In fact there is an enormous amount that you can do, so much so that this can be counter productive. There’s so much that can be done, that nothing ever gets done.

This is especially true the mid to large companies where there a sign off is required to implement changes. Often the Internet person is still developing their career so they do not have the experience or knowledge to be able to justify their ideas or validate them with research.

We all aspire to have the perfect Internet marketing strategy, unfortunately we believe that there is a short window to be perfect. The Internet changes, what was perfect 2 years ago might be considered out of date today, rather than stick with what we know there is a whole host of opportunities to try other ways. The great thing about the Internet is that if these new ways do not work; you have the opportunity to fine tune them, tweak them slightly or in the more extreme cases… hit the delete button.

If you would like to talk to us about your Internet marketing strategy or discuss how we can boost the traffic or profile of your web site, please do not hesitate to contact us.

What do you think? Please feel free to comment below.

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When planning your next email marketing campaign stop and have a think about who the recipient is going to be and tailor the message to suit?

Now, I don’t just mean their age, profession or gender, I mean try to understand their personal profile, their interests, their knowledge base, likes and dislikes.

You’re probably asking yourself how I would know this by simply looking at an Excel sheet with a bunch of names and email addresses.

This is where data management comes into effect.

Using the data that you collate or purchase, it is vital that you categorise it into specific areas. Then following on from your e-communication campaigns you must sub categorise. To be able to task this successfully you must clearly understand and analyse the metrics allowing you to produce even better targeted future e-marketing campaigns. The moral issue, .invest in a good CRM system to hold and pro-actively manage your data as well as an effective email marketing solution to understand the metrics of each campaign.

What if it’s a cold list?

If it is a cold list of for example ˜Product Marketing Managers” have a look at a typical role and job function, this may be found on recruitment websites, and there might even be a profile of a typical PMM from various web sources such as www.about.com, or if it’s a consumer market have a look at websites such as www.tgisurveys.com, www.nrs.co.uk and www.statistics.gov.uk , you’ll be amazed at what information you can access for free.

Once you have a good understanding of your target market you now have to think about what’s going to float their boat! What’s going to engage them and make them take action to your communication? What’s the communication path i.e. are you going to ask them to click through to more information or fill in their personal details? What is the key message you want them to absorb? Will a creative communication work better than a plain text? What will the subject line be?

All these areas must be considered, my biggest tips are to make it simple, overcomplicating a message or communication path can be dangerous, if you ask too much of people they will simply switch off. Make it personal, personal communications always work better! If you feel that you are being communicated with on a one to one basis you are far more likely to take action than if the communication screams out mass mail!

Good luck with your next campaign, be targeted and be personal!

PS. It’s just a thought, but don’t forget to test your message and subject line first!

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Small RSS logos, similar to the one you can see to the left of this page are popping up on all sorts of web sites. Many of the larger well known sites already have them and you might be wondering what their benefit is and what they might do for your own site or business.

Typically, RSS is considered a great way to increase the amount of relevant content on a web site. For example, if your business is selling motor bikes, you might have a news section where you syndicate all of the related news to motor bikes. The benefit to your visitors is that you are providing them with regularly updated information that is pertinent to their interests. The benefit for the web site owner is that it reduces the time required to serve up interesting content.

The next stage is even better; by offering an RSS feed on your site you are providing an opportunity for people with similar interests to your own to syndicate your content. This works great if you are a news or content driven business, however it less clear how to benefit if you’re an e-commerce site for example.

We at Generate UK, were recently engaged to work on an e-commerce site, we set our client’s site up, created a solid pay per click campaign and optimised their web site for the search engines. We also wanted to see how we could incorporate RSS feeds into their marketing plan. One way that we identified was to encourage their customers to review their products. These reviews, were collected as a section in their blog and syndicated.

We then started to optimise their RSS feed, this is an important step. You need to track the number of readers, establish who is reading and encourage users to add your feed. You then have a readership of interested parties finding out about how good your customers are saying you are. It’s the perfect referral system for the digital age.

If you would like to learn more about RSS and how it should be a valid part of your online marketing plan, please do not hesitate to contact us.