It’s becoming difficult to visit a single website without seeing the effects of internet marketing. From banner ads to affiliate commission links, the entire internet has been monetized to a degree where efficient business and important information have blurred into one form.
While some ‘net surfers want to escape the extensive advertising and occasionally invasive advertising, most small businesses are looking to establish themselves online and get their piece of the online pie. With offline small business advertising losing effectiveness and value, the online world is quickly becoming an attractive option for local businesses, online-only companies, and small businesses worldwide.
If you operate a small business and want to use the internet to your advantage, it’s important to have at least some knowledge of the playing field. Before you commit to an online marketing campaign, use this guide of seven internet business advantages to change, shape, and influence your online marketing efforts.
1. Online leads cost nothing to acquire.
If your business is tired of paying expensive overheads to acquire prospective clients, the internet could be the best option for your future lead generation efforts. While cold calls and direct mail marketing carry expensive per-minute and per-mail costs, online lead generation costs nothing but the fees for web hosting.
For businesses that are focused on long-term marketing, an online lead generation presence can be a real asset. With a powerful search-powered website, you could find leads coming to you, rather than your business having to chase them down.
2. There’s no countdown timer online.
Tick-tock, tick-tock. That’s the sound of the amount of time you have available to win over the client, and it’s ticking away every time you make a cold call or market your services in person. While cold calls and in-person meetings can generate some good long-term business relationships, they often pale when compared to the limitless, pressure-free sales that can occur online.
When a prospective clients seeks you out online, the ball’s in your court. When you seek them out personally, you’re immediately at a disadvantage. With a powerful online presence, you could have clients and customers lining up to contact you, and not the other way around.
3. Online marketing scales effectively.
Human-driven marketing doesn’t scale. While a business can always hire more marketers, there’s a clear glass ceiling hovering above each marketer, always limiting the amount of business that they can bring in, the amount of leads that they can generate, and the amount of potential income that they’re worth.
Online, things are different. Instead of direct marketers, you have a business sales page. Instead of time-based communications like phone systems and mail, you have stress-free email. If your business is built to scale, a move online could dramatically increase its growth potential.
4. Local customers don’t look in the phone book – they look online.
When presented with the amount of search terms specifically tailored for their area, most local business owners are stunned. The assumption that the internet is used only for national-level or city-level commerce is dead wrong. Customers are rapidly moving away from the phone book or local business guide, and are using Google, Yahoo, and Bing as their business directories. Instead of investing in expensive and ineffective offline marketing methods, many local businesses would be best off marketing their business towards local search results.
5. Offline, multimedia is expensive. Online, multimedia is free.
TV advertising is often outside the budget of many local businesses. While a multimedia advertisement could be an effective sales tool, the cost of local airtime outweighs the potential effects that it could bring in.
However, when posted online multimedia and advertising materials take on a new life. Using free services such as Youtube or Vimeo, businesses can show their TV ads to millions of potential viewers, all without spending a cent on broadcasting or airtime.
6. Online marketing can be risk-free.
The most stressful part of any marketing campaign is the waiting game. Most business owners know the feeling well – the stress that comes after a campaign is launched, but before it begins to show any effect. All doubts kick in, and even the smallest concern pre-launch is amplified to a horrible, crippling worry.
Online, that feeling isn’t there. Using per-sale or per-action based online advertising, businesses can make their product available without any risk to themselves. Rather than risking their own capital on advertisements or marketing materials, their effort and risk is outsourced to affiliates and online marketing partners, who offer risk-free advertising in exchange for a small commission.
7. Creating a free online PR platform is easy.
Thousands of businesses waste money on an ineffective offline PR firm every year. The structure of offline media – limited space, limited value, and limited room for businesses – makes every PR effort a battle rather than a negotiation. Businesses compete for page space and airtime, and money is spent on competition rather than real value.
Online PR couldn’t be more different to its offline counterpart. Rather than fighting for limited attention, businesses target the long tail of limitless, value-added space. With the simple addition of a company blog, most businesses can move from PR dinosaurs to online PR masters within days.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls and anyone else who likes to read my posts on here that do not fall into those categories…the wait is almost over!
Your thinking, what wait? Am I supposed to be waiting? Well, I haven’t been waiting, so should I be?
The answer is Yes, you should be waiting. You should be waiting for Custard Media Solutions’ premiere, worldwide exclusive, of their brand new promotional video!
Last Thursday afternoon, we had Seal Films turn Custard Media HQ into a Hollywood film set. Ok well that isn’t strictly true; we had the same desks, albeit we sat in different places, same chairs and the same people. The same people that have no experience in this kind of thing…(well except me, I was in a film once…well a deleted scene of a film…but it made the DVD).
Didn’t take us too long to film, as soon as we stopped Adam from laughing mid take and Sam shouting from the background whilst we were recording, but other than that it all went smoothly, as custard does!
We should have a few more action photos for you and some out takes as well as the edited version soon enough.
I won’t give too much away at this point, no not about my film, that’s not as exciting, about the promo. All I will see is, watch this space.
Social media can be a great PR tool for businesses, but all too often things can go very, very, wrong. From utterly clueless businesses experimenting with the internet to in-touch online businesses simply making amateur mistakes, the world of social media certainly isn’t one that you want to be caught in when you’ve screwed up.
These five social media mistakes must have hurt. From businesses to bands, CEOs to employees, social media PR disasters happen surprisingly frequently. These five caught our eye for sheer style, stupidity, and humor value.
1. Whole Foods’ Political Debacle
Whole Foods, a brand that’s particularly popular amongst social media users, caused a stir in the blogging world in mid-2008 when CEO John Mackey made some negative comments about President Obama’s healthcare plan. While the comments were made in the Wall Street Journal and weren’t related to Whole Foods as a company, left-leaning social media users were outraged at Mackey’s conservative remarks, and created a 22,000-strong Facebook group calling for a company boycott.
2. Attack Attack’s Horrible Music Video, and the Rise of Crabcore
It’s one thing to be made fun of anonymously on the internet, and it’s another altogether to have your official Youtube channel invaded because of a music video. Attack Attack’s latest music video drew jokes and criticism from just about every metal fan, who rushed to their Youtube channel to poke fun at their patently ridiculous dance moves.
How did Attack Attack respond? By pretending the old video didn’t exist, and filming a new one to replace it. Despite their best efforts, the older, significantly more hilarious video still draws thousands of views per day.
3. Microsoft’s Horrible Windows 7 Ads
When it comes to advertising, competitor Apple Inc. have a clear advantage on their Redmond competition. Microsoft’s recent advertising campaigns have drawn a lot of criticism, mocking, and even entertaining parody in the blogosphere. Thousands of bloggers have challenged Microsoft to make a good commercial, and with their recent string of TV-bombs, it seems unlikely they’ll accept.
4. Horizon Realty’s Ridiculous Twitter Lawsuit
Fancy being sued for the content of your tweets? Chicago-based property firm Horizon Realty decided that one user’s tweet was too much when they filed a libel lawsuit for $50,000. Her only offense? Calling a Horizon Realty apartment “moldy”.
Naturally, Horizon’s move drew a lot of negative feedback in the blogosphere and social media world. Who knew frivolous lawsuits could draw so much attention? Let’s hope Horizon Realty gets their settlement – they’ll need it after this wave of bad publicity.
5. Dominos’ Youtube PR Disaster
This one isn’t a case of marketing incompetence as much as it is employee stupidity. In 2009, two Dominos employees uploaded a video to Youtube of them doing some pretty nasty stuff to customers’ pizzas. Dominos managed to get the video yanked off Youtube two days later, but the damage was done: some 1 million viewers saw the video, and news travelled quickly. Dominos later responded to the controversy, minimizing damage slightly, although the effects are still quite clear – search “Dominos PR”and you’ll still be inundated with coverage of the PR meltdown.
It gets to this time every year, towards the end of January, and there is a killer disease that seems to only affect the men in the country. I suffer occasionally from this illness…an illness that makes me feel helpless, feeble and vulnerable. It’s an illness that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. Fortunately, I am yet to have it this year (touch wood), but Sam, a Director of Custard Media Solutions, has come down with it big time.
I’m talking about the dreaded ‘Manflu’! Now, don’t laugh, maybe it’s not a ‘killer disease’ but this is a serious matter, because the women of the world don’t seem to have any sympathy when this wretched malady infests itself within the male species.
You see, Sam is one of the most hard-working, most sensible people I know…(ha!) and even in tragic times like this, he still pushes himself into work to keep the team together and educate us even more about the world of seo and online pr.
But then yesterday, it just all got a bit too much, he couldn’t take it anymore and the Manflu or ‘Samflu’ took a turn for the worse. Bedbound, helpless and dysfunctional, Sam just couldn’t make it into the office but instead like the dedicated man that he is he set up shop at home and pushed himself through with a full hard day of work (so I’m informed)! It’s obvious that Sam is trying hard to battle it off, but for some guys, it’s just not that easy and all that you can do is wallow in sorrow as nobody comes to the rescue. Yesterday, Emma found a quote that sums up this situation down to a tee:
“Men suffering from Man-Flu want nothing more than to get out of bed and come to work, but they are too selfless to risk spreading this awful condition amongst their friends and colleagues. In this sense, they are the greatest heroes this country has ever known.”
Manflu has even made Internet News this week, and men have been dubbed the “weaker sex” because a “minor ailment is enough to morph us into helpless babies.” Now, don’t get me wrong, I am far from a sexist person, however, you can tell that this was written by someone who hasn’t been there, someone who just hasn’t experienced the pain and drama that we have to go through, someone who just doesn’t understand!
The following clip is the epitome of what men have to go through. Take a look, maybe it will make ladies more aware of the kind of state we go through, and maybe you will think twice next time.
I should state before you watch, that no man was injured during the making of this video, and is inserted for educational purposes only. Women, don’t try this at home!
When our female counterparts are poorly or sick, we men can relate and know how you feel, so we wait on you, hand and foot and nurse you back to full health, and when the tables are turned, what a different story. We get taken advantage of and I think it’s time we make a stand.
So next time one of your employees, employers, husbands or boyfriends have to pull a sicky due to the dreaded Manflu, just remember…they are off for your own good!
Even though, from time to time at Custard Media HQ, we can get a little ’snowed’ under (thought that was appropriate) with SEO and getting clients to the top of Google for their keywords, it is very rare that work gets forgotten about or not done at all…in fact it just NEVER happens!!
However, all this hard work warrants a bit of time off, and Christmas was the perfect time. It’s a whole week to chill out, to take a holiday and to just do our own thing. This is time is cherished by all of us.
But as you can imagine, coming back to HQ in the New Year, it’s busy times, phone off the hook, work to catch up with and emails to respond to.
That brings me onto today’s post rather nicely.
Emma ‘Gibbo’ Gibson is HQ’s office manager and account manager and over the Christmas period there was one particular email Emma received, that contained some work for her to do. We had only been back a couple of days before it was the weekend and Emma received a bit of an ‘ear bashing’ because it hadn’t been done. Not only that, but this ‘ear bashing’ took place whilst she was in her Holy Place…The Pub!
Our client heard about this and I think he felt rather guilty, because yesterday around about 4.30pm, a delivery for ‘Gibbo’ arrives.
This wasn’t your standard looking gift…this was a rather large brown box, all taped up with Emma’s name on it.
So like a little child on Christmas Day, mini squeaking to high heaven (as you will soon witness for yourselves) she proceeds to open her gift. In true fashion, Ayman Fazeli, our online pr manager and part time camera man for Custard Media Solutions, was ready for a bit of video action! Just see what she makes of the marshmallows…O, sorry Emma…”They’re Princess Marshmallows!”
I should probably state at this point, that Emma is not disorganised in the slightest and is actually the one that keeps us all in check…(Emma you owe me a drink!)
So, I think the moral of the story is, don’t do the work, get an ‘ear bashing’ for it, make the client guilty and you will be rewarded…hmm somehow I don’t think that’s going to go down to well somehow. So I think we’ll just resume normal practice!
Social media is no longer an oddball marketing tactic, it’s a proven marketing method for thousands of businesses worldwide. With small businesses, major corporations, and Fortune 500 companies all rushing to create their own social media presence, we’re seeing significantly more social media successes.
However, alongside those successes are some embarrassing mistakes. From fake grassroots marketing to paid-for reviews, big brands occasionally make some major errors in the transition to social media marketing. These five mistakes seem to pop up embarrassingly often, so we’re put them together as an anti-template for social media marketers.
1. Online astroturfing
Normally reserved for “grassroots”political campaigns, astroturfing is the process of creating a marketing campaign that appears spontaneous and audience-driven, but is really planned out well in advance by the advertiser.
A standard practice for some offline advertisers, astroturfing rarely ends well in the online world. Social media moves fast, and users can quickly find details about online personalities and so-called “genuine” movements. Create real social media movements, not manufactured enthusiasm.
2. Being a brand, not a person.
People use social media platforms to connect with other people, not other brands. As valuable as an @Microsoft Twitter account could be, it’s unlikely to provide any direct interaction with customers. If your company is using social media for customer support, assign each employee a personal account, not just an anonymous company brand.
3. Moving too slowly.
A large number of offline-only companies are amazed at the speed of online business. Social media moves incredibly quickly, with major news stories traveling across the world in mere minutes. There’s no greater proof than the massive reliance on Twitter for recent news stories and world events. While traditional outlets take hours, sometimes even days to report, Twitter users have pieced stories together in minutes.
There’s a downside to this, especially for small businesses. While social media can promote you rapidly, it can also bring your business down without careful attention. Respond immediately whenever negative feedback hits the airwaves, and don’t let stories travel without your side out there.
4. Spreading your influence.
Social media is all about influence. When given the choice between 100 semi-valuable profiles or one ultra-influential profile, which would your business choose? Obviously, the choice is in the single profile, but thousands of businesses, intentionally or not, end up choosing the hundred.
For businesses with multiple employees, it’s unwise to spread influence across each and every account. Using individual accounts for technical support and customer assistance is a worthwhile strategy, but it’s especially wise to keep one brand-only account for major announcements, promotions, and business events. Ensure that your followers only need to listen to one account, and enjoy greater online influence.
So it’s a brand new year, new start and new things to come for all of us at Custard Media Solutions.
Even the recent “Big Freeze” is pretty new for this country and its funny to see how unprepared we actually are for it.
I heard a joke the other day, which I will share with you guys…prepare yourself it’s a bit of a shocker…
Q. “How do you know if it’s snowing down south?”
A. “They have a News bulletin!”
Look, I told you it wasn’t brilliant, but it’s absolutely true. All we have heard about for the last couple of weeks is how this weather is affecting us, and how bad it is. Schools are off, exams postponed, offices closed down due to it. But weeks before, the bookies place odds on whether we will have a ‘White Christmas’ and everyone saying it will be really nice and all that jive and then when it arrives, everyone goes on a massive downer about it.
Except us! In the heart of Leyland, in the midst of the blizzards, is our office. Nothing could keep us away in this weather. However, there are some disadvantages of this that I will share with you.
1. Having to defrost my car! No one likes doing it, but it’s one of those painful things that has to be done, if you aren’t lucky enough to have air conditioning or heated windscreens, then this isn’t a problem, it’s when you have nothing but a credit card to scratch the frost off, with no gloves and gained frostbite by the time you have finished, is where blagging being snowed in becomes more appealing!
2. We have to perfect our drifting skills on Tesco’s car park to avoid, college kids having snow ball fights, businessmen falling over and getting up in the hope that no one has seen and busy mums chasing their kids in sliding runaway trollies.
3. Arriving on a Monday morning, when the rather pathetic heater (I say rather pathetic, I actually mean downright rubbish as it doesn’t get warm until about 4.30 on the following Friday) hasn’t been on all weekend. In fact it would be more beneficial to have someone with asthma blow at me through a straw. Hmm, maybe a new job for Rick J
4. Sitting at my frost covered desk, below lengthy stalactites that have formed on the ceiling, trying hard not to keep my fingers moving in desperation that I don’t freeze to my keyboard.
5. Then at the end of the day, wading out through the white stuff, bounding across ice, that Torvill and Dean would be proud of! To get back to my car to find its frozen over again! Repeat disadvantage 1!
But when it comes down to it, I don’t really mind, we all enjoy what we do. I often think of our office as a bit like a Santa’s Grotto, can be easily missed when not looking for it, as the weather of Lapland inside, but the SEO work we do is absolutely magical.
What better way to celebrate Christmas than with a good old fashioned snowball fight!
As a company, we’re expanding so fast and it’s with regret that we can’t even fit in Rick, Steph, Rachael and Jake into this little ditty – apologies folks, we’ll just have to do another one….!
This is all I want to do... I don't want to fight!
I come into the office every day and quietly get on with my online PR work, causing no trouble or no harm to anybody.
I am a quiet person who is very inoffensive yet I have caused a massive rift in the office and it has nearly being going on for three weeks.
You see a few weeks back we joined a website called Makethetea.com, an amazing website which randomly selects someone to make the tea in the office so it is not left down to one person all the time….or so I thought.
The first week went well and in fact I was leading the way making the most brews out of everyone in the office….but now that has all changed.
I haven’t been picked to make one in 2 1/2 weeks and it is causing great tension and frustration in the office.
The first week was funny and everyone was having a laugh and a joke about it. I was loving the fact I hadn’t made one cup of tea and was really rubbing it in to everyone thinking, “It isn’t my fault, it is the websites decision, it will be my turn soon.” How wrong was I?!
The second week has proved to be a living hell. Each time the ‘Brew’ button is pressed I panick and actually say a little prayer that it is me and every time it is not.
I have no idea how this has happened and I have contemplated contacting customer services (which Ayman has kindly done already) to find out why I haven’t brewed up in a while.
Rick, the apprentice in the office, has made the most brews and his name comes up all the time. I feel terrible. I even offered to take his next turn I feel that bad!
Now we are into week three and I still haven’t made one.
I now feel guilty drinking tea (but still say I want one anyway) in the office and may surprise them all soon and randomly offer….or I may not!
They are convinced I have secretly contacted customer services and asked them not to select me to brew up, or I have magically changed the site or worst still I actually own the site. It is bad times.
What I thought was a cool and really fair website has turned out to be the bane of my existence. I think I actually hate it. (but I still like tea!) It is very tough at the moment and I hope the tension in the office cools off soon.
I will keep you posted on my tea making and let you know how I get on.
Most of us walk happily into work bright eyed, bushy tailed and in the working mode. Well I was bushy tailed and in the working mode but I definitely wasn’t bright eyed!
On my drive into work this morning I lost one contact lense. Don’t ask how, it really doesn’t make any sense. I hadn’t touched my eye or moved my head, it just simply fell out!
I pulled into the carpark and slowly began searching myself to see if I could find it. I carefully stepped out of the car removing my scarf in slow motion in case it dropped out. Ayman, PR Manager at Custard Media, had just pulled up in the car park and was looking at me doing this rather strange-looking ritual dance and thought I had lost the plot.
Gave up hope and made my way into the office. At 2.30pm the blurred affect is pretty normal now but I will be bringing my spare lenses next time.
Now we are sat here listening to this rather strange choir outside our office. They turned up yesterday and began singing really loudly and apparently we are to expect it every day this week.
They re enacted scenes from the bible and it genuinely sounded like someone was actually being crucified.
We are also convinced that Richard, Custard Media’s apprentice is actually a part of the choir. Every time, just before they are due to start, he seems to need to ‘get some fresh air’ or ‘asks does anyone want anything from Tesco’…we are not so sure!
A normal day in the office at Custard Media but we have fun!
