Consumers search the Internet for products, news and information, organizations in every industry are shifting budgets aways from print advertising, trade shows and direct mail toward more measurable and effective inbound marketing strategies.

Inbound marketing as a  marketing strategy starts with the consumers method of searching for information on the internet.  It starts with the consumer conducting a Keyword search online, subscribing to your RSS feed, downloading your case studies, opting into your email newsletter, watching your videos, listening to your podcasts becoming your “fan” or “follower”, visiting your social network, commenting on your blog or leaving a review.

Inbound Marketing is powered by content and community.  In order to grow smarter and faster than the competition, organizations must maintain powerful and informative Websites, participate in social media and continually publish great content through blogs, podcasts, videos, optimized press releases, case studies , white papers, eBooks and articles.

Virtual Tribe as a marketing company recognizes the need to focus their efforts on helping organizations harness this powerful strategy.  Learn how to set your online marketing goals.  Set up your free Online Marketing Review with Dee Nott today 910-494-2480  Don’t let your competitors leave you in the dust!

The Universal Goals: Leads and Loyalty.

Why yes there are rules and I’m really surprised that by now more business owners don’t know or follow them.

QR codes have been around for sometime now and it was one of those things that people dabbled in but just didn’t know how much weight to give them.  It takes a smart phone to access them and frankly if your target audience didn’t have one more than likely they where just whizzing by your attempt to use a QR code in your marketing.  So you may have said to yourself..Self..let’s just wait and see where this trend goes before we do anything with it.

Fast forward to today where nearly 100 million americans own a smart phone the QR code might be something you might want to revisit.

As for the First Rule with marketing with a QR code?  Make sure that the site is Mobile Ready!  The site will be viewed on a mobile device so the page that the URL resolves to should be optimized for display on mobile devices.  Sounds logical enough right?   It’s easy to forget that QR Codes are primarily for mobile devices and that they should resolved to a mobilized version of the encoded url.

For some of the more well know sites it will not matter because they will examine the user agent ( a string identifying a browser or agent accession a web page) and display the appropriate version of the page.  Maybe you heard of http://www.youtube.com/ ? From your  computer you will see the normal page, however if you are using your iPhone you will be redirected to the mobile version of YouTube.

Most QR codes you generate will be for sites that do not have a user agent switching but fortunately you can still ensure that the mobile user of your QR code will see an optimized version.

If the sight is not under your control then you can use Google’s mobilizer by adding the url to this string:

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=

Seriously…try it out

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.msn.com/

There are other mobilizers out there as well Skweezer and MobileLeap for you to tryout and see what you like best.

If you are mobilizing your own site such as your blog then there is an even better option which will mobilize your site.  Generate a QR code for the mobilized url and keep usage stats using  Delivr .  Another option to consider is Mippin which has an option to include advertising but you must have an RSS feed for it to work.  I’m looking further into this option right now!  Who knows you may see it on my site very soon.

This is not one of those times where you should be a rebel!   So just make sure that if you do decide to use QR codes in your marketing that your content is optimized for a mobile device and will be able to be consumed by at least some of those 100 million users!

I’m constantly amazed to see local business owners using their commercials online.  I mean good Lord!  People ( even them) do everything possible to avoid watching commercials on TV ( hello, ever hear of Tivo?) do you really think they will be watching them online?

Nobody likes to be “SOLD” to, especially with the fast paced “DVR” age we live in today;  we only want to watch the things that interest us..whether it’s our favorite TV show, sporting event or something that educates or informs us.

With that in mind, people definitely don’t want to watch commercials online.  They go there to Google for an answer to a question that popped into their head,  learn how to do something, or find out who is the best plumber or mechanic according to the online reviews.  In short they are looking for content that is beneficial to them.  A great content video will provide this, as well as allow the viewer to start seeing you as the “expert” in your industry because you are willing to share information with them whether they buy with you or not…and not just another salesman.  That alone sets you apart and will cause you to ket to know, like and TRUST you!!  No Commercial, whether online or on TV , gives you that!

I’m sure you have noticed it in several places and you know it’s something that doesn’t seem to be going away and that is Mobile Text Marketing.

I talk to many business owners who are just not sure how all this web media stuff works!  They know it works but they are just so overwhelmed with running their business that trying to sit down to figure out what they should be doing.  Social Media, Video Media, or Mobile Media?  They all work and all work well.  So let’s talk right now about Mobile Media Marketing.  How can you use this to it’s full advantage to grow your bottom line?

The first question many business owners ask is will this be me spamming my clients and customers with unwanted and intrusive text messages?  NO and I’ll talk more about that in a moment.

First…the stats…92% of all text messages are read with/in the first 2 hours.  Almost 98% of all voice mails are listened to.

Very cool for mobile marketing.  But now you may be thinking so exactly how does that help my business?  This brings me back to the earlier question about unwanted text messages.  This is not you sending out unwanted and unsolicited text messages.  This is about targeting the right people and knowing what you are doing.

So let’s go through an exercise now to figure out a plan to use mobile marketing.  Let’s say you are a painter who has a special that he is offering during his off season, We offer 20% off  interior paint jobs.  My target will be homeowners who are getting ready to sell their houses.   So I go to networking groups, Realtor associations, home interior trade shows etc. and hand out flyers with my number and website just like every other painter.  Stop The Old Way!

Let’s do this instead, a cool sign to set up at networking meetings or trade show booths and you use a cool business card with a message that says something like this:

“STOP RIGHT NOW! TEXT YOUR NAME AND EMAIL TO XXX-XXX-XXXX FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN ONE ROOM PAINTED FREE”

Short Sweet and to the Point.  ( and you are telling them to take action)  Now you set up an auto text service and auto call back service and auto email service. Then send them a text, email and voice mail that says something like

” Hi, thanks for entering your stuff for a chance to win”

the winner will be drawn on xx/xx/xxxx you will be notified who the winner is good luck!   thanks again for entering go here to check out more of our amazing services and get to know us!

Now you are building a list that you can market to what they wanted, your information about your product or service.  Give them so good tips about your product of service over time and they will look to you as the trusted advisor and the authority they will start to trust you.  Then when it comes time that they need your services you will be their only choice.

Mobilize your media!

Share This Video With An Overwhelmed Friend!  http://youtu.be/oZ0mi5pnaas

Small business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their business so they can enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Whether it’s a new policy for employee procedures or software for accounting and inventory, putting systems into place that allow the business to run smoother is always a good thing!

How about your online marketing?  Do you have  systems in place for that?  What tools are available to make your Social Media run automatically even when you are working on other things.

The key to any good online marketing plan is to deliver relevant content constantly.

The problem:  Time obviously!  We all fear the social media time sucking factor.  We go on with one goal in mind and hours late realize that not only did we just waste a huge chuck of time but we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do!

The Solution:  Tools that streamline the posting process without ever signing into our Social Networking Accounts!  The content delivery from one place will not only laser focus your posting process, but it allow you to schedule into your social media activities and stick to it without all the shiny distractions that social media networks  throw in our way.

Yes there are several out there to choose from you can just goole that, but I’m focusing in on TweetDeck today.  I don’t get paid to recommend it!  I am all about cutting down the noise!  So if you just need me to tell you what to use…here it is. Tweet Deck.

From one place you can add several of your Social Network Accounts, Facebook ( personal profile and business pages) Twitter and Linkedin and create a post that you can post to all of your accounts at once, or just a few.  You can even schedule them ahead of time.

By using tools like TweetDeck you can actually plan your social media for the week ( or further out if you like)  all in one planned session.

Example  of a Social Media Planning session.

Monday Morning: Stop at my Favorite Coffee Shop ( unless you can do this at work with distractions around you )

Get Coffee

Fire Up The Laptop

Search for content ( use RSS FEEDS to accomplish this daunting task)

Pull together great content to share from others  (OPC) This can be content that you have collected over the past week using the Monitoring Your Social Media in 10 Minute a Day Download the Guide Now!

Choose 8-10 things you think your audience can benefit from that have something to do with your industry.  Put them into a list ( open a word doc or text doc. and cut and paste)

Clean up the list  to ready it for posting

Add Your personal post and video from previous weeks efforts

Open up TweetDeck and start Scheduling posts!

Plan out headlines for your own personal content for the week.  Write or source out articles on the subjects. ( one a week will do fine) create short video(s)

Schedule time for creating video and blog post to use next week!

You can actually do this once a week and forget it!  Do you need to still monitor daily what is going on out there…YES but that again is all part of that 10 minute a day strategy so we are not going to go any further into that here!

So check out Tweetdeck and let me know what you think about it!

What is your tool of choice when it comes to streamlining the Social Media process…I’d love to hear about it!

Share this with one of your overwhelmed friends who have been complaining that Social Media is getting to be too much to handle!

I read a tweet today on one of my Business Coaches Twitter accounts ( yes that’s right, I have a business coach, two actually, it takes more than one man to handle me!) the tweet was from a guy who does voiceover work.  He gave  the guys a backhanded complement about how cool their video was, but how much better it would be with a professional voiceover, and oh by the way guess what he does?  Yup not that hard to guess huh?  Voiceover work.  He was obviously tweeting for work.

The irony is that the whole point to their videos is to establish re pore with their audience, share their knowledge and show their audience that they are real guys with whom they can relate to on a real level and who know what they are talking about.  The are not selling, they are offering information and that builds credibility.

If they had gone the “professional” route they may still have done alright, but social media is about relationships. finding out about the person behind the product and the brand. If you establish a relationship on a meaningful level through videos or blogs and articles,  that are written in your own voice, things you would actually say…that is where the magic happens.

I’m not saying that my coach was upset, or even made a comment about it (he didn’t) but think of the ways that person could have handled that differently.  Had he just stopped at “hey nice video, thank you for the information about social media marketing” Or retweeted if he felt it had value that would have put him on my radar or others who had been watching the conversation. Instead of him being the subject of my “what NOT to do article” he could have been featured as a What TO DO with a link to his site and tweet link.  Obviously I’m not going to call him out personally now!

When I first present the idea of NOT selling to a client when it comes to using the Internet to market their business, I’m convinced they totally don’t even hear me say it! The concept is just so completely foreign to them that I think they hear me say something that a yellowbook sales rep would say to them.

I’ll ask them questions about how people find them online, what questions somebody who knew nothing about them, their product or services would be asking ( or goggling) and would they come up in that search?

The answers vary, but the common ground is they start to talk about their website, how they have optimized the site with their keywords  or maybe they talk about their Facebook page or Twitter where they list all their weekly specials to the 20 or so fans and followers. I’m not trying to belittle them, heck it was not that long ago I was in the same boat!  Social Media is relatively new and for those who have been using it for awhile are starting to understand and get it, others who are new are making the same rookie mistakes that even I made coming in the door.

So as business make the transition from offline advertising to online marketing, they may have some growing pains.  Using Voiceover talent or the prettiest office intern to make the online commercials is just not they way to go.

People appreciate learning new things and will find it refreshing that you are willing to answer the questions they have as only you as an industry leader can provide them.

Break out the Flip Video camera and start answering some FAQ’s and post them to YouTube, your blog and website in YOUR voice. Don’t worry about Mr. Voiceover man…you can always refer him to you competition!

Fayetteville NC:  We all need our Fayetteville business phones to ring a lot more so the more you can get your business phone number out there the better!

Today’s tip is all about that!  Check out our Gmail Tips and Tricks video this week where we pull back the curtain on one of the most under used setting in our Gmail Tool Box!   As always if you have any questions or suggestions of what topics you would like to see Dee Nott with Virtual Tribe cover please leave a comment in the box below!

Brand building can be expensive and hard to track. In tight economic times, some business owners find it difficult to commit advertising and promotional dollars to an ad campaign unless it can promise fast, easily measurable benefits.

Building a solid brand is vital for any business, but when short-term returns are essential, successful coupon promotions are a sure way to bring people in the door. Fortunately there is a promising new venue for spreading your promotion to a wide audience.

Groupon sends its ten million subscribers a “deal-of-the-day” discount offer from a single area business each day. There are more than 70 cities for subscribers to choose from, with each market featuring a unique, locally-relevant promotion.

Merchants are allowed to set their own terms and conditions. For example, a local clothing store might offer $40 worth of merchandise for $20, or a QSR could offer a $4 smoothie for $2.

Imagine if your 3000 new customers and ll walk away with a negative impression. From the moment your promotion is posted, you need to be at the top of your game.

Subscribers purchase their coupons on the Groupon website. While response rates vary, most promotions sell anywhere between 1000-5000 coupons in a single day. That’s an amazing draw for most business.

But there are many things to consider before deciding if Groupon is right for you:

Cost: Groupon takes a 50 percent cut of the coupons you sell. So if you sell 2500 coupons at $20 each, you and Groupon will each collect $25,000. Assuming your coupon offers a 50 percent discount (which is about standard), you can expect to receive only 25 percent of your usual price. However, because some coupons are never redeemed, and many shoppers will spend well beyond the discounted amount (Groupon claims 60% on average), most business report at least breaking even on the deal, with an often dramatic increase in traffic going forward.

Demographic: On average, Groupon users are young, well-educated females with respectable salaries (see here for a complete breakdown). If this is your market, or a market you’d like to tap, Groupon may be right for you, but older generations are less likely to respond.

Wait Time: Groupon is has been very successful, and the wait time to get listed can be several months long. This varies from city to city, but regardless of where you live, getting listed is not something you should expect to happen right away.

Traffic Spike: Perhaps most importantly, your business must be able to handle a sharp, temporary increase in traffic without compromising service. Imagine if your 3000 new custome

rs all walk away with a negative impression. From the moment your promotion is posted, you need to be at the top of your game.

One thing is certain: Groupon will bring in new customers. The only question is, considering the cost and the risks, do you really want them?

Bing launchs the Bing Business Portal, replacing the Bing Local Listing Center.

And WOW, what a difference!

The new Bing Business Portal comes with a ton of new capabilities that weren’t present in the previous one.

Bing Business Portal Highlights

In addition to the ability to claim, customize and manage local Fayetteville NC business listings as you could before, they have added some really nice new features:

• Create a mobile site and QR code so customers can learn about your business on mobile devices
• Add links to Facebook and Twitter to your business listing
• Create and download a window sticker with your business contact info and a QR code
• Create Deals (coupons) and promote them for free on Bing (both PC and Mobile) and Facebook.

They also allow you to authorize others to manage your listings. This is huge – because many local businesses rely on professionals to help them manage and optimize their listings. With Google Places there is no such delegation, so business owners end up having to allow consultants to log in via their email address, or create a new Google Account just to manage the Place Page.

I also noticed that Bing allows you to hide your business address from the listing, which is important for home-based businesses or businesses that don’t want people showing up on their doorstep.

Claiming Your Fayetteville Business

I found the process for claiming your business to be smooth and easy. You claim your business here: http://www.bing.com/businessportal Going through the process, you enter the basic information about your Business and Bing searches to see if it can find it.

Once Bing finds your business information, you go ahead and claim it using the Claim button. There are two options for verification – by phone or mail. I verified via phone and was done in 2 minutes.

Filling Out Your Business Profile

After verification, Bing takes you through a series of steps to add additional information about your business and complete your profile. You can even define your products and their prices, which will show up on your profile and on your mobile site. When you are done you can preview and publish it live.

Creating Your Mobile Site and QR Code

Now for the interesting part – Bing has a designer tool that allows you to create a little mobile website for your business. It has features to change colors, highlight your products, map and call buttons. I couldn’t get it to make it look really nice, but there is some potential here. It even gives you the URL to your mobile site.

You can also create a QR code that you can display on your Window Sticker or other offline advertisements. A person with a smartphone can use a QR code reader to scan this code and be taken instantly to your mobile website on Bing complete with map and directions.

Creating Deals (Coupons)

But wait, there’s more! Bing also allows you to create and display deals. They’ve got a little deal “designer” interface that allows you to lay it out, upload images, etc.

These deals can appear in the Bing Daily Deals mobile site: http://m.bing.com. Bing says “Every day, certain Deals created by local merchants will be highlighted on the Deals section of the mobile site.” Criteria for having your deals show up are listed in theBing Business Portal FAQ.

Wrap Up

I’m certainly very excited to see how this pans out. Bing says that all existing local listings have been moved over to the new Bing Business Portal, but I found a few businesses that were dropped. I will definitely be claiming these profiles for my clients.

Claiming and completing this profile is very important to your local search rankings, even in Google. Having more autoritative “citations” of your business helps with your rankings. And now that Bing powers Yahoo search, Bing represents over 25% of the search traffic.

As Greg Sterling said his his Search Engine Land piece, the real opportunity for Bing is to provide a more “human” support experience for small business owners who are so frustrated with the “algorithmic” approach that Google is taking toward Google Places.