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Online Marketing for Your Small Business:Bridging the Gap from Offline Marketing

Nick Thacker — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:35 +0000

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Bridging the Gap from Offline Marketing" />

Bridging the Gap from Offline Marketing" width="200" height="300" />Like me, you’re a small business owner. Maybe you’ve dabbled in marketing completely on your own, using things like business cards, postcards, and brochures, direct mail campaigns, and maybe even cold-calling to reach your customers. Maybe you even hired a marketing/advertising firm or had an intern designer working for you. Either way, if you’re like most small business owners and entrepreneurs, you’ve struggled with bridging the gap from offline marketing messages to online channels.Sure, you know that there are online counterparts to offline, traditional, marketing methods: electronic newsletters as opposed to monthly mail-outs, email campaigns instead of cold-calling campaigns, etc. The list goes on and on, but the one thing that most of my clients don’t understand is the difference between the two marketing methods: trust.

It’s Pull, not Push!

We’re in a world governed by what we want to know. In the good ol’ days, marketing folks sent out direct mail brochures, constructed billboards, and created radio and television advertisements, all with the same goal: get the message out to as many people as possible. This concept, referred to by Seth Godin and other marketing gurus as “Interruption Marketing,” needs to be thrown out the window when we’re looking at marketing options in online channels. The old “push” method of marketing and advertising is replaced online by the “pull” method of “permission marketing.” We are completely capable of finding what we want to know on our own. When we do find what we want and are ready to purchase, then–and only then–is the right time for a company to pitch the sale. Sure, we can try to be everywhere and anywhere and hope that someone in need of our products and services will come along, or we can be where our customers are and connect with them from the beginning.

For a small business with a limited offline or online marketing budget, this is the only way to go. We need to understand that our customers are engaging with each other on social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and online forums, and we are welcome to the conversation. The key, however, is to not break this initial level of trust by “selling” right away (traditional marketing approach). Instead, we need to engage and help our audience find what they need, answer questions, and guide them into a relationship with our company. It’s called trust, and I have no doubt you understand the concept.

The rule of trust

When someone trusts us–even a little bit–they are much more open to hearing what we have to say, and may even begin to ask questions about our line of work, or our products. The online way of doing this is by seeking out the channels your customers want to connect with you, and entering the conversation, as a human, not a company.

Only after we’ve made a name for ourselves in that particular channel are we allowed to further the conversation into a relationship. Only after we’ve entered into a relationship are we allowed to engage in overt online marketing–or ask for the sale.

“It sounds like it takes time…”

And it does. Sometimes months, sometimes years. The beautiful part about it is that it really works. Companies like Dell, Comcast, and TuneCore have paved the way for two-way B2C and B2B interactions online, and they’ve used marketing online to take it all the way to the bank. Hard work, dedication, true understanding and caring for your customers will pay off.

If you are in the process or have thought about jumping into the conversation online, let me know. I love to talk business, social media, and marketing (online and offline), and I’m pretty good at finding the conversations for my clients.

I’m not selling anything, or asking you to pay me for consulting or building online marketing materials. Sign up for my free weekly newsletter first, and work through some of the troubles you’re having in your online marketing campaigns by following some of the things I write. I promise I won’t ever spam you, sell/give away your information, or take you for granted.

You just want to start a conversation, and I am too!

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Online Marketing for Your Small Business: Networking and Social Media

Nick Thacker — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:41:26 +0000

I attended a huge networking event today, and I really enjoyed most of what I was involved in. Austin is filled with great people, and passionate business owners, and lots of entrepreneurs who don’t know the next step. They’re considered (by me) to be very successful, and they know their industry inside and out. Still, though, they don’t understand the power of the Thing They’re Missing about online marketing. The Thing They’re Missing is what drives me to do what I do. The Thing They’re Missing is the Thing that could matter the most for their online marketing; the next era of small business, or the Thing that makes or breaks their business completely. For most, the Thing That’s Missing is not a website, or a Facebook page, or even an online newsletter–it’s the culmination of ALL of those channels, working together in tandem to create a seamless presence online for whomever may one day stumble upon it. Sound familiar? The Thing They’re Missing is part online marketing, part social media–a topic I love to soapbox about, because it’s what I grew up with.

If you met me yesterday at the Chocolate, Blues, and Business networking event, you’ll immediately remember one thing about me: I was younger than you. Sometimes by a lot, sometimes not so much. The key to what I do that sets me apart from the other guys who claim to be “social media” or “online marketing” experts is that fact. While I wasn’t around for the latest developments in your industries (health care, insurance, mortgage, etc.) I grew up with mine. I was there when Facebook was only open to college kids (I remember bugging Mark Zuckerman to let my high school have Facebook accounts). I was there when MySpace sucked (wait–it still does?). I was there when Twitter was just a twinkle in an addicted Facebook-status-er’s eye. I was there when that Thing They’re Missing was that Thing We’re All Missing.

In a not-so-small way, I built my online marketing/social media industry. Rather than having years of experience or multiple accredited degrees in traditional marketing that I’m trying to transfer into the digital space, I have years of experience growing up with newer and faster ways of creating, regurgitating, reaching, discovering, and sharing information. Throughout all of this, I’ve been listening to my friends, peers, and mentors about what works in the world of online marketing.

So–entrepreneurs–what do you do now? Do you try to find the Thing They’re Missing and apply it to your business by blogging, Twittering, Facebook-ing, and newsletter-ing? Maybe. For some, it’s easier to understand that privacy (at least superficially) is dead. The idea of “push-based” online marketing (or offline!) is dead. The concept of “interruption advertising” is dead. Stop Missing The Point with your online marketing and start listening to what your kids are telling you!

Right now:

Set up an account at Twitter (in your own name, if you can; privacy is dead), and send out a Tweet about what you do.
Then, search on Twitter for a keyword that applies to your industry with the “#” sign in front of it (#socialmedia, #marketing, #online marketing #insurance, etc.).
Find and read some of the articles linked in the search results, and re-Tweet some of them that you like.
Rinse and repeat at least 5 times today.
And tomorrow.
And the next day.

You’ll soon have a feed of Tweets that you’ve sent with keyword-rich hashtags (#) for others in your niche to see. After you’ve got a page or two of Tweets sent out, seek out some other people in your industry (start by finding the ones who originally sent the Tweets you re-Tweeted…). Follow as many as you can. This is the birth of your online marketing campaign–that’s it! Nothing else to do until you complete this easy task!

What you’re doing is building a network of like-minded individuals who are one step closer to trusting you (which is many steps closer to actually doing business with you).

Sound familiar? It’s called networking, and it’s not your father’s networking. We did it yesterday together in 3D, but this way is faster, bigger, and just as useful for your online marketing if you do it right.

Want more information on social media, online marketing, and networking? That’s why you should be reading my newsletter…Other Popular Posts:

How to Scale Your Social Media Efforts in Only 30 Days

Nick Thacker — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:32:56 +0000

While I’ll admit I may be accused of hijacking another blog (The Social Path), I felt the need to share with you all this amazing series of posts that aired the month of January:

Luckie’s 30-Day Social Media Makeover. Luckie and Company is a social media marketing company that I came across on StumbleUpon recently, and I’ve been reading through their posts on expanding your social media reach.I talk a lot about social media, online marketing, and building a web presence, and these posts do a great job of summing up the basics for a great network. As I mentioned before, cultivating your online presence through social media channels isn’t difficult (usually), but it does take a conscious effort. Creating relationships with other bloggers/media folk can help achieve huge things online–whether it’s about free advice for relationships, networks of like-minded bloggers, etc. Take baby steps each day to prune your networks, streamline your data, and keep in touch with your audience and customer base. Nothing I’ve found online can do all this for you, automatically, so series of posts like Luckie’s are great for a step-by-step way to keep up with it all.

That and subscribing to my RSS feed and newsletter…Other Popular Posts:

Social Networking for Small Business

Nick Thacker — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:20:56 +0000

I’m working on building up a consultancy with Brandon Marker for social networking and online marketing. So far, I’m working for Donald Minnick of Interpersonal Skills Lab and Deb Poppe of Poppe Mortgage Services, hoping to build their online presence and business brand into something worth writing home about. Here’s an outline of what’s going down:

Twitter: we’re setting up Twitter accounts to keep followers updated on industry-specific news and specials, and business happenings. We’ll be strategically building a list of around 2,000 – 3,000 followers for each account.
Newsletters: if you’ve had the distinct pleasure of subscribing to my very own newsletter, you’ll have an idea of what we’re hoping to do.
Article Marketing: it’s all about content, but where that content ends up is also a big deal. We’ll be using specific article marketing techniques to place certain articles around the web to hopefully be picked up and freely distributed. This technique should lead to about 7-10% of our overall traffic.
Niche Blogging: yup, we couldn’t do this without a blog, and it’ll be one of the main traffic sources–either from organic or paid search results.
Paid ads: campaigns will be run through various online markets–Google, StumbleUpon, and others.
Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, you name it–we’re going for it.
Much, much, more. There will be so much going on under the hood during these campaigns that our heads will probably explode. Multiple times. BUT–we’ll try to keep you updated on the latest, and what’s working and what’s been tossed.

Hmm, this is starting to seem like a book’s table of contents… I wonder if anyone out there would be interested in a book on successfully using social marketing and networking to promote a business?

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The State of Colorado says you should gamble because your life is pathetic. – StevenSilvers.com

Nick Thacker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:29:16 +0000

I just came across this great post on Steven Silver’s blog. I thought you might get a kick out of it.

The State of Colorado says you should gamble because your life is pathetic. – StevenSilvers.com.

Luckily, Texas hasn’t (as far as I’m aware) stooped to this level of debauchery and undue influence, but I guess if you look at state’s lotteries as business models, they are also suffering from the “economic crisis…”

Oh well. Take a look and thank Steve for his cool post!Other Popular Posts:

CEO National Conference in Chicago, Il.

Nick Thacker — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:43:54 +0000

This week, Brandon Marker of WhatIShouldHaveDone.com and I are presenting at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization National Conference. Brandon’s speech is called “Networking to Birth Limitless Opportunities” and begins today at 3:20. Mine is called “Take Your Measage To A Higher Level” and will be tomorrow (Saturday) at 3:20.

We know they’ll be fun and informative–we hope to see you there!Other Popular Posts:

Blogging Killed the Newspaper Store

Nick Thacker — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:51:43 +0000

OK, that was a terrible attempt at a “punny” title (get it?), but there’s been so much talk lately about whether or not the newsprint industry will be able to survive the next 5-10 years. The Internet coupled with a changing user base, plus a dated business model, may just be enough to overthrow the reign of the well-loved newspaper. But what will come next? And will newspapers become a second-thought novelty item or remain strong as an “intellectualy” alternative to the racy, incredulous “blogosphere” content?

First of all, it’s pretty well understood that the business model is highly flawed. People aren’t willing to pay for the “convenience” of having a paper delivered to their front door anymore, because it’s now more convenient to stay in their pajamas and read the same news headlines on their computer. RSS syndicates of their chosen news source show up at the click of a button whenever there’s an update, and further opinions and expansions can be found as primary, secondary, or bullshit sources via personal blogs.

Overhead for printers cannot currently keep up with the shrinking amount of money rolling in for subscriptions, and payroll for specialized reporters and photojournalists is escalating. Market equilibrium has been reached a number of years ago, and now the supply and demand curves are showing that if newspapers are to succeed, competition must be eliminated.

But is there something else?

What about the fact that newspapers haven’t ever tried to reach people on their own terms? Churches, private institutions, and other organizations that are often associated with the “elitist” mentality are guilty of this as well. The large papers have always been able to run what stories they (or Rupert Murdoch) want, and have not had to suffer the consequences when people turned up their noses at the medium through which it was delivered. If you wanted the news, you could 1. turn on the TV and wait for a story that interestes you, or 2. read the paper.

The publishing industry is also suffering from a similar crisis (revelation?), though not as pandemic. Would-be authors are showing up in hoards to online publishing houses where their crappy poetry can turn them into the next “author unknown.” Likewise, would-be journalists are creating free “newspapers” at places like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and TypePad, where their egocentric need for outside acknowledgement of their existence can be satisfied.

I believe for every blog that’s read, hundreds of millions more sink into oblivion.

Why is this fact key to the problem at hand?

Newspapers exist(ed) because people needed to read.

Blogs exist because people need to write.

The status quo hasn’t just shifted, it’s turned itself completely upside down.

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No-Fee, No-Interest Loans

Nick Thacker — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:11:59 +0000

Small Business Administration – ARC Loan Program.

The SBA recently announced SBA-backed loans of up to $35,000 will be available to small businesses beginning June 15th.

The loans will be mainly for redirecting capital to pay off debts, retain employees, and fight recessionary problems.

I’m not sure what kinds of businesses are able to qualify, but the SBA stated that these loans are focused on businesses that have shown profitability at least one year of the past two. If you’re running a business in college, this could be a GREAT way to offset your student loan debts and get your company off on the right foot.

If anyone has checked into this opportunity more, please let us all know!

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Judge Declares Cap’n Crunch’s “Crunchberries” Not Real Fruit

Nick Thacker — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:03:26 +0000

Why do we even bother blogging, creating, writing, thinking, building, or innovating? Why do we waste our time thinking the world is advancing and becoming more cultured, intelligent, or intellectual. What is the point? When I see headlines like this, those are the questions that flood my mind. Either I’m wasting my time, or there’s an ever-widening schism between the people who were born with the human capacity to think, and those that weren’t.

If you need a good laugh (or want to hate the world all over again), read this TRUE news article:

Disappointed consumer: Cap’n Crunch “Crunchberries” not real fruit.

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