Inexpensive custom-branded blogs now the hottest marketing tool for any small business

Zosel Blog

January 12, 2009

Powerful internet marketing capabilities -- now within reach of any business.

Using Wordpress, the most popular open source blogging platform, B2C or B2B businesses can operate an agile content management system that allows anyone to update content (text, images, media) so search engines will see your website as a dynamic, trusted entity. Shown above, the website saunatimes.com is the brainchild of an entrepreneur who aims to create a high traffic informational site for sauna enthusiasts. It's just one of many examples of companies, individuals and organizations creating websites to accomplish a variety of goals.

Whether you sell products or services, here are the advantages:

Inexpensive -- An open source platform, you're able to customize proven templates that function like a dream. Because we work from templates, it takes far less time to create your site. We're not starting from scratch.
Sophistcated branding is easy -- With Wordpress you can count on having a site that is true to your brand. By customizing templates, it's easy to make them look dynamite, with spectacular full photo backgrounds, transparency, flash slideshow widgets, and more.
Easy to use -- Simply create your own pages and posts, and categorize them in an intuitive fashion. Complete tagging capabilities too.
Thousands of widgets and plugins to choose from -- No matter what type of functionality you need, there are thousands of proven tools available that are easy to integrate.
The novice search engine marketer's dream -- Easy titling, header tags, and clean web standard css code make this platform foolproof for novice internet marketers.
Control your own destiny -- Once your site is up and running, you'll only need about an hour of training, and you're off and running. Keep in mind, however, you'll need a good keyword plan to really get yourself rolling.

"I can't tell you how happy I am with the setup of my wordpress site. I think the concept (static image, static 4-5 pages, posts, and category layout) is very logical. It's still a work in progress as farr as my content goes, but the site is like a house, shelled and roofed., maybe even sided. It's usable and the framework is such that I can do the finish work on my own time." Glenn Auerbach, http://www.saunatimes.com

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Surviving a recession: poll reveals top 10 most popular marketing tactics.

November 25, 2008

Sure, times are tough. We've all got to be smarter with our marketing pennies. However, a McGraw-Hill Research study of over 600 Businesses found that drastically downsizing your ad spend may not be so smart after all. You could be missing out on a rare opportunity to cut the knees out from under your competition. And, if you would like to know exactly what these smart marketers are spending their money on, here are the results of a recent poll of over 400 businesses who responded to the question:

“What three internet marketing tactics will you emphasize in the next 6 months?

1. Search engine optimization (36%, 149 Votes)
2. Blogging (33%, 134 Votes)
3. Pay per click (26%, 107 Votes)
4. Email marketing (22%, 89 Votes)
5. Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn) (21%, 86 Votes)
6. Blogger relations/blog PR (14%, 56 Votes)
7. Microblogging (Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku) (11%, 47 Votes)
8. Affiliate marketing (11%, 47 Votes)
9. Advertorial (NewsForce, AdFusion) (10%, 40 Votes)
10. Video marketing (7%, 29 Votes)

Sure, number 1-3 are no brainers if you're looking for a smart spend. SEO, blogging, and PPC all optimize your search rankings which brings prospects to your front door. And curiously, #5 makes a ton of sense because it costs nothing to aggressively network on Facebook, LinkedIn and other popular social sites.

Looking to take advantage of the rare opportunity that only a recession can offer? Consider the findings of McGraw-Hill's Research study of over 600 Businesses:

In 1981-1982, businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following 3 years.
By 1985, sales of the businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession actuall increased sales 256% over those that had cut back on advertising.
Aggressive recession advertisers increased market share 2.5 times the average for all businesses in the post-recession.

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Recent marketing debates: Direct Mail vs. Permission-Based Email?

April 30, 2008

If you are still using direct mail a primary lead generation tool, consider permission based email. You can easily get the same results for a fraction of the cost.

If you're like me, you probably get hundreds of pieces of mail each week. And many of the letters, postcards, or self-mailers are beautifully crafted with offers designed to attract the industry standard 1%-2% response rate that will make each direct mail campaign profitable, even though we toss these expensive mailpeices in the garbage.

When I say expensive, I mean big bucks. For example, practically any of the mailers shown in the photo above cost anywhere in the range of $.65 - $1.50 each (mailed), depending on the quantity. And when you're talking quantities of 10,000 to 50,000, that's huge dollars, particularly if you're just using Direct mail to prospect for new leads or customers who have never heard of you. And while the traditional direct mail industry seems to be going strong, Permission-based email is less than half the cost of of traditional direct mail marketing, to very likely produce the same results. This makes me wonder if the companies using direct mail have ever tested permission based email marketing.

When I say a fraction of the cost of traditional direct mail marketing, here's what I mean. We recently quoted a price for an email campaign for a B2B client for 142,000 emails. Total costs, including creative, custom landing page (essential), and delivery was about $.05 per unit. That's pretty typical. Compare that with $.65 - $1.50 each (mailed) for the quantities of 10,000 to 50,000 I mentioned earlier. How could a marketer who is looking for great results for the dollar afford not to test permission based email marketing? Permission based email marketing can easily achieve the industry standard 1%-2% response rate. Sometimes better depending on the list, product and offer.

Permission based, or opt-in E-mail campaigns are by far the most cost effective method of lead generation today. With the proper development expertise, you may achieve much higher response rates than traditional direct marketing at much lower costs with faster turnaround times. Proper development may make it perfect for new product introductions, marketing offers, newsletters, target new markets, etc. Plus, we can provide a highly accurate means of measuring response and conversion.

SPAM Sensitive? From what i understand, permission based email marketing is somewhat misunderstood. No matter how legitimately the email names were generated, marketers in general have a strong perception that all email marketing is SPAM.

Not true.

If you're a little leery of email marketing becuase of the potential for spam, here's the good news. All legitimate permission based email marketing companies follow very strict guidelines that protect you and your company's reputation.

Must comply with the CAN SPAM Act of 2003.
Certify that all ‘opt-in’ emails sent contain an ‘opt-out’ option for the message receiver, a return email address and a non-deceiving subject.
Complete documentation of how opt-in records were collected (email form, address, IP address, date time Database sources assume liability for any and all legal issues with regards to the database.
Spam filter testing and deliverability rate of 100%. The databases used will clean their records at least 1 or 2 times a month to ensure deliverability.

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