Marketing is a challenge for small businesses everywhere, and if you are a small business owner, you are well aware of the hurdles involved. Luckily the internet has tons of online tools that make that challenge easier to face! But wait, what are the best tools? In an effort to answer that question, we are kicking off an interview series with members of the Twitter community. We want to know exactly what challenges small businesses face, and what they are doing online to overcome those challenges.

 

We interviewed Eric Fransen from Fort Mill, SC (@ericfransen), owner of Klik Marketing: www.klikmarketing.com

First off, what services does your company provide? We offer Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, Behavior Analytics, PPC Campaign Management and generally any Internet Marketing type service.

When did you launch your business/how long have you been in business? I launched my first Internet Marketing business in 1998. My new venture (founded 2008) is built on the same principles of my previous company except we are focusing strictly on the Internet Marketing side of things and aren’t providing any design services.

What marketing tool(s) does your company currently use? Web Position, Web CEO, Excel, Google Analytics, SEO Toolbar from SEO Book, Custom Manuals for clients

What has been your greatest marketing tool? My most successful marketing tool comes from a combination of current client referrals and people reading our blog postings. After the initial referral we send most people to our blog to give them an idea of how we work. It usually closes the deal before we even get on the phone with them. 

What are the biggest challenges your company faces in marketing its product and what are you doing to overcome those challenges? The Internet Marketing industry is unique in that we are competing worldwide with freelancers, boutique firms, large agencies and everybody’s nephew. So going out there and getting a top ranking for search engine optimization company is a bit harder that getting a top ranking for most other industries. So for internal marketing purposes we don’t focus as much on the search engine side of things. Our goal is to put out good blog posts and take care of our customer base. Our rankings will come over time, but are revenue steam isn’t dependent on it.

A lot of companies are shifting their marketing efforts to online tools and free social media marketing. Has your company made this kind of shift, and if so in what ways are you marketing online? The majority of our marketing is paid for in time. We practice what we preach. Between Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogging, Technorati, MyBlogLog, Friend Finder, etc we dedicate time each day to put out good content for our target market. Training videos will be our next step. We’ll be putting together monthly series that help small business owners do a lot of their own Internet Marketing. We act as their Director of Online Marketing and they will do the majority of the grunt work. It’s not that we don’t want to do this work, but based on our clients finances and their intimate knowledge of their product line we feel we can make better progress by directing their efforts. If they want us to do the work we’ll gladly dig in, but I’m seeing a niche area that we want to specialize in.

How are your company’s sales tactics or way of doing business being affected by this recession and do you have any advice to other small business owners?

Any cost saving tips? We’ve found over the last 10 years of doing business with hundreds of companies that communication is king. As long as we communicate with our clients, give them reasonable expectations and then exceed them they will stick with us. The majority of our clients’ websites are an effective part of their business and they realize through the good and bad times it turns a positive ROI and they need to put money into it, because more comes out of it than goes in. In regards to cost savings tips. We have just released our “We Are Your Online Marketing Department” campaign. The yearly savings are in the thousands depending on the industry, marketing, competition, etc. I believe this type of offering is going to allow us to stand out in a down market. Everybody has to bootstrap it a bit like when they started out. We want to be there to give the business owner or manager the tools to move in the right direction on the Internet Marketing side of things.

 

 

If you would like to be a part of our interview series please email us at info@marketingrooster.com, or if you are on twitter DM us @marketrooster.

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Social Media Today has a great post about the immediacy of social media to spread breaking news. Yesterday’s plane crash in the Hudson river has by now reached news stands everywhere, but the first to learn of the crash were those on twitter, who had immediate access to a bystander’s twitpic. Not only was the twitter community immediately alerted, but news sources themselves were then able to trackdown witnesses for interviews due to their twitter activity.

Only thirty-four minutes after Krums had posted his photo online he was interviewed live on TV by MSNBC (video here). Other traditional media also reached out via social media to get hold of eyewitness stories. The Charlotte Observer first sent a news alert via Twitter and then posted several requests on Twitter.

Read the full story here

h/t @renster

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When Obama first came out with his logo in February of 2008, people in the blogosphere noted the striking resemblance between it and Pepsi’s logo. In articles such as Slate’s “Obama the Pepsi Candidate,” James Ledbetter discussed the connection not only between the candidate and company’s logos, but used the comparison as an analogy between the Coca Cola like establishment of Hillary Clinton, and the Pepsi like outsider appeal of Obama.

It remains debatable if the Obama camp ever intentionally modeled its logo after Pepsi’s. Although the comparison of Obama to Pepsi, and Hillary or even Mccain to Coke is an amusing one, it’s doubtful that the President elect’s camp consciously chose to emulate the brand. However, in light of the new pepsi logo contained in the ad below, it is undeniable that Pepsi’s reinvention of its logo is now banking on an association with Obama. This ad was released as a New Year’s wish from Pespsico, but on first seeing it, I, as well as many people I know initially thought it was an Obama ad.  

Brand association is nothing new. Think of a few of the most prominent examples that we use every day, Kleenex, Xerox, where the general product is called by a brand name. No one is going to ask for an Obama when they want a Pepsi, or vice versa, but the company is embracing the association between the candidate “for a new generation” and it’s own similar market position.

Brand association is a powerful yet subtle device that small business can easily incorporate into their marketing efforts. Here are 5 steps to create your own brand association:

1.       Identify the demographic(s) that you are trying to reach

2.       Identify a brand, product, or image that appeals to that demographic

-          For instance if you are  a real estate agency selling homes to upper middle class income families, picture a model home with any of the following images:  children playing soccer out front, a Mercedes Benz SUV in the driveway, or Golden Retrievers in the yard.

3.       Use language that incorporates that brand association to solidify the connection.

-Ex: Safety to Play, Affordable Luxury, Freedom to Roam, respectively with the above image associations reinforces that brand association.

4.       Incorporate these associations into your PR, Website, print and online ads, juxtaposing your company with these images and language whenever possible.

5.       Continue the dialogue, using the language you create to reinforce the association until it becomes an integral part of your brand.

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