3 Online Marketing tips for the new economy

What’s online marketing got to do with happiness in the workplace – well without a lot of business, things like happiness at work take a step back, marketing too. So marketing, as significant driver of business keeps things going. The interesting thing is a lot of the techniques online gurus swear by is about using the age old technique of integrity. 

The fact that we’re so inundated every day with marketing messages infiltrating our online personal spaces, means we all get very well trained on how to spot a sales pitch disguised as something other than it is. We’re all experts and can spot a duozey a mile away (what if you responded to every spammy email that hits your in-box?) 

So what’s the trick then – just a bit of integrity. If it’s good say so. If not, perhaps its best to find something worth selling!

Here’s my very brief list of some good tools for 2009:

1. Make use of social media – social media works as it replicates interaction with ‘real’ personalities – this aids trust and most of us will listen to a person over a cleverly crafted sales pitch. Read this article about Social media in 2009: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8944081/Social-Media-2009
2. Risk to say it boldly – Create online copy that risks an influx of comments and links (a form of link-baiting: http://www.jimwestergren.com/link-bait/ ). If you think it, say it boldly – stirring emotion will also stir activity
3. Automate lead generation – There’s some many simple online applications on the net right now that really reduce management time and lower costs – the trick is crafting things like email autoresponders with the same warm familiarity of a face to face meeting or phone call.

Here’s a few:

http://www.scribd.com (documents online)

http://www.basecamphq.com/ (online project management)

http://www.freshbooks.com (online invoicing)

http://www.pixelalchemy.com.au (Yes this is my plug – Develop a site with Business Console and integrate all your business systems into 1 – email marketing / auto responders / CRM / Online Sales / Website / Blog / Forums – It’s really how each of these things link together seamlessly that’s so exciting about this product )

http://www.3minuteangels.com (with all this cold hard computer stuff, lets not forget the power of touch – send a potential lead and Angel, warm them up to some good ideas of yours)