In today’s economic climate, your business needs to do more than just wheel out the same old tired marketing strategy year after year. The popularity of online publishing tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr – have created a unprecedented media opportunity for businesses to promote brand awareness by becoming an information authority on topics that are relevant to your industry.

Benefits include creating a sizable following that can help provide quality feedback on products or services. According to research performed by Forrester Research, 34% of retailers say social marketing has helped increase sales. The conversation is happening. The question is are you going to join? Here are a few tips to help make the transition into social marketing easier:

Question
Take the time to learn about the most popular publishing tools and the audience they reach. This can be a time consuming process but should not be overlooked. Consider hiring a professional to manage the process for you if time is an issue. I guarantee you will yield a higher rate of engagement that can be tracked properly for ROI purposes. Understanding the feature-set of each social utility will enable your business to engage in the conversation more effectively. We suggest only trying two to three publishing tools in the beginning so you have time to familiarize yourself with each before adding a new one.

Learn
Once you understand the nature and context of the blog, Twitter feed, video or
online discussion where relevant topics are being discussed, think about how you want to respond or
engage in the conversation. Utilize the search features included in each social marketing network to learn about what is being said about your brand. Learn from the conversations and prepare a strategy that enables you to guide it in the right direction.

Decide
Often times businesses utilize social media publishing tools independently from each other. Resulting in off-topic conversations that are challenging to track and convert in sales. Your companies goal should be to harness all of the communication channels collectively to serve the overall marketing strategy of your organization. For example, use software such as Seesmic to help manage multiple networks at the same time.

Prepare
Most online publishing tools include features that enable users to customize the look and feel of their accounts/profiles. Prepare yourself by researching the guidelines of each network before creating a new account. This way you’ll be able to engage in conversation immediately without sacrificing the power of your identity. Create graphics that compliment your brand and provide contact information on each that can be measured by your analytics software.

Act
Craft your responses to ongoing conversations by being transparent, respectful, clear and concise. Keep in mind that most of these social network utilities are indexed by search engines. Thus, stay on message and craft your messages clearly so they can possibly be used to help others in the future. It can sometimes be tempting to become defensive when someone attacks your brand/services. How you respond to the situation can sometimes turn a bad situation into a positive experience.

Last March, Toys R Us bought the Toys.com domain for a cool $5.1 million dollars, drawing widespread attention to the value of domain names. The fact is that any business—online or offline—needs a good domain name if it wants to make any money off the web. With a well-chosen domain, you can better control your online presence and establish a more solid online identity.

So what makes a good domain name? Each successful business would probably point to a different handful of factors. Most of them, however, can be lumped into these four main elements:

1. Brevity

The Web allows domain names of up to 67 characters (63 without the .com), but it’s never a good idea to use it all. Good domain names are short and sweet, but nonetheless effective in conveying your business. “Toys” is a mere syllable and 4 characters long, but the message is clear: when you want toys, this is where you go.

2. Recall

A short URL works because it’s easy to remember, but sometimes it may be worth the few extra characters. Acronyms are a classic example. IBM may get away with ibm.com, but buying bbam.com for Bill’s Books and Magazines won’t get you very far. Business adviser Dr. Michael Fortin suggests using rhyme and rhythm; rather than using obscure initials, you can use billsbooks.com, which has a much nicer ring to it.

3. Relevance to business

It used to be easy getting your own dot-com: you just took your business name and registered it. But if you’re just starting out, chances are there’s already someone using your URL. Your best bet is a name that relates to your business, although not necessarily with your name. For example, Bill’s Books can get alternate domains such as “cheapbooks,” “booksandmags,” or “bookfinds”—not only is it accurate; it also pulls up your search engine rankings for relevant keywords.

4. Ease of use

When you misspell a popular site like facebook.com, you land on some obscure, ad-laden, and possibly unsafe pages. It may not be so bad for Facebook, but when people want to go to good old Bill’s Books and end up in an online casino, it isn’t good for business. On the web, you’re always going to have a few bad spellers or bad typists. Choose a domain name that a five-year-old can remember and type in. If you constantly have to spell it out for people, chances are it’s not a very good one.

Time was when Internet marketing consisted of having a website, and email address, and not much else. You spread word around and directed people to your site by word-of-mouth, and you’ve got business all year. But that was twenty years ago.

These days, marketing without strategy is like taking an unplanned road trip: without a map, you’re taking chances at every turn and hoping they don’t lead to a dead end. Of course, there’s no start-to-end trajectory in Internet marketing — but keeping these four elements in mind will keep you on the right track.

Your budget

Let’s face it, 95% of people in online marketing are putting hard-earned money at stake. The best you can do is minimize that risk by arming yourself with information. Acquaint yourself with various marketing techniques, from web design to banner advertising, and the real costs of each one (including potential returns). Then look at your checkbooks and decide how much you’re willing to wager.

The marketing mix

Use your newfound familiarity with marketing techniques to lay down a comprehensive marketing strategy. The marketing mix is like a jigsaw puzzle: some methods are made to fit together and create a much bigger impact. For example, social media marketing can generate traffic to your blog, which in turn refines customer relationships and turns them into potential buyers, who eventually up on your sales page.

Staying flexible

Internet marketing, like every aspect of online business, is seldom linear. With millions of businesses in the same boat, you can expect to have your plans thwarted by budget, competition, and changing industry standards. Stay on your toes and be ready to change course as needed. As you get to know your market, you’ll be able to anticipate changes and create effective backup plans.

Tracking your success

Part of being flexible is knowing not just how, but also when to change tactics. Keep an eye on your site traffic and conversions, and take time to study how internet marketing affects the figures. Determine which tactics are well worth your money and which ones aren’t. Eventually, you’ll be able to refine your strategies so that you get more returns with less.

A popular joke in the online retail world is that there are two kinds of retailers: Amazon.com, and everyone else. If you fall under the latter, it’s easy to get cowed at the sheer size of big online companies. But here’s a secret: they’re afraid of you too.

The playing field of online retail isn’t as lopsided as experts would have you believe. Here are five advantages you have over the big corporations, and how you can use them to gain an edge.

1. You can look just as credible.

One thing all retailers have in common is that most of their traffic still lands on the home page. A well-designed home page can earn you that “instinctive” trust that people put into sites that look trustworthy. On the Web, after all, it’s all about perception.

2. You can reach niche audiences.

Big retailers need big audiences to earn their keep, but you can make your fortune from the smaller niche markets they tend to ignore. It’s seldom worth their money to seek out markets with little demand. But that’s precisely what small companies need—a highly targeted audience with a far greater chance of becoming regulars.

3. You can offer personalized service.

It’s a well-known fact that the larger the company, the poorer the customer service. When’s the last time you got a refund from a big retailer without being passed around from one department to the next? With a smaller audience, it’s easier to directly address people’s concerns and build more lasting relationships with your customers.

4. You can beat them at SEO.

Again, since your products are more specialized, you can rank higher than big retailers for the search terms that matter to you. A sound combination of search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, and other marketing techniques can gain you significant market share at the expense of large competitors.

5. You probably have more online experience.

A lot of established retailers started out as brick-and-mortar stores; many still keep their offline operations. Studies show that online operations are largely neglected in such companies, often causing internal struggles as they compete with offline management. On the other hand, companies that started out online offer more efficient Web service and are more likely to keep customers.

For the nine-to-five worker, the perks of freelancing may seem endless: working in your own time, choosing your own projects, being your own boss. But few people have bothered to mention the competition. There are over 10 million independent contractors in the U.S., and that figure is expected to grow as more people find themselves out of work thanks to the recession. More than ever, you need solid marketing skills to match your talents as a freelancer.

Define your services

Most marketing “experts” will say it all starts with a good website. It doesn’t—what you need first is a clear understanding of your business. Start by asking yourself these questions:

• Who is your target market?
• What product or service do you have to offer?
• How does your service fit into their business?

All that information can be pieced together to provide a clear picture of what you do. Potential clients will be asking the same questions, and your website’s job is to answer them all.

It’s not just about traffic

Here’s another marketing myth: more traffic means more money. At best, excessive traffic gives you a marginal amount of profit considering the costs of personal marketing. At worst, it eats up your bandwidth. What you need is targeted traffic—the kind that’s made up of people who are actually interested in your business. Before spending money on link exchange, pay-per-click marketing, banner ads and web directories, make sure your site is good enough to make all those visitors stay.

Tone down your copy

Selling professional services online is not the same as selling vacuum cleaners on TV. The latter tends to be punctuated by hype words like “amazing” and “incredible,” which may work for haggard housewives but not for business owners looking to hire capable contractors. On your website, these words only send the message that your services are as overrated as your writing. Write the way you would normally talk to a client—formal but friendly, professional but not devoid of personality.

There’s no secret formula

The Internet may have made things easier for freelancers, but some things about marketing never change. Those get-rich-quick sites that promise easy money? They’re just after yours. The key to successful freelancing in the digital age is the same as it was in the Stone Age: earning trust, building valuable relationships, and doing what you can to make them last.

Let’s say you’re in a fairly straightforward business, such as construction, and you like to work face-to-face with your customers. You’ve been running the business on your three-year-old PC. So there’s no need to invest in a website, right? Not so much….

Every business, from cookie stands to building contractors, benefits in some way from being online. Even if you’re no bigger than a lemonade stand, you need to get your business on the Web.

Let’s start with five reasons:

1. Presence

We’ve reached the point where if you’re not on the Web, you might as well not exist. If someone Googles construction firms and you’re not online, you’ve already lost to your more tech-savvy competition. Over 500 million people use the Web every day—you simply can’t afford to ignore that market.

2. Marketing

If you’re still printing flyers and going door-to-door, your marketing is more than a bit outdated. A website is like constant advertising; you put your material out there and people come to it, instead of the other way around. And it’s there 24/7, so you don’t miss that crucial customer from another time zone who decides to look for construction firms at 3am.

3. Feedback

Every business likes to hear from its customers, but few people would be bothered to call up a company just to say thanks. A website serves as a portal for customer interaction, where people can leave you messages and you can get back to them in seconds. This can come in handy when you’re working with long-term clients who need regular updates.

4. Networking

Every business relies to some extent on connections. For example, your construction firm may be built (pun intended) on relationships with contractors, architects, interior designers, and even government agencies. Your website is like a free-for-all business card—it makes connections all the time and helps you build a stable, relevant network.

5. Updating

So you’ve rolled out a new product and you want to get word around. Do you call the papers, print out posters, or start sticking ads under every windshield wiper in town? When you have a website, all you need is to update your site and write a short release to pass around. For half the effort, you reach ten times more people, say your piece in more detail, and avoid the wrath the occasional short-tempered car owner.

First there was MySpace, then there was Facebook and Friendster. Then came the likes of Digg and Delicious. These days, people are on to Twitter. No, these aren’t characters from a children’s show. They’re what the marketing industry calls social media—a growing body of content created by the masses as opposed to mainstream providers (like TV and radio). And in the fast-paced world of online marketing, they’re the next big thing.

What it is

Social media marketing involves generating publicity through social media channels. On Facebook, they’re the groups of people promoting everything from candy to charity. On Digg, they’re the news and articles that people post and vote on. It’s also the thousands of corporate blogs that get updated every day, and the Twitter feeds that fill up their sidebars.

So what makes it different? In social media, you’re a user just like everyone else. It’s the online equivalent of, say, Bill Gates peddling his software on your doorstep. By being right where your audience is, you make a much stronger impact and get more direct results.

What it can do for you

The great thing about social media is that it’s not just a single channel. You can promote yourself through videos, blogs, micro-blogs, forums, petitions, or all of the above. It’s more a question of what you want it to do for you. Marketing Pilgrim offers a list of top goals for social media marketers:

1. Increased traffic

Social media makes up a sizable chunk of everyday Web traffic. With the right techniques, you can have your fair share.

2. Exposure

In social media, there’s a higher percentage of relevant page views; that is, the people who end up on your site are actually interested in your business. There’s never been a simpler way to get your ads to reach the right people.

3. Sales tracking and conversion

Because each network has a distinct medium, it’s easy to track where your sales are coming from. And when you can direct your marketing accordingly, you get high conversion for less work.

4. Brand awareness and association

It takes time to build a brand, but with social media, you build a stronger and more lasting association. The average person checks at least one social media network every day. And when you’re there all the time, they can’t help but remember you.

Fifteen years ago, e-commerce was the kind of thing you’d only see in sci-fi. Today, the business so creatively imagined by Hollywood is a $250-billion-dollar industry, big enough to dwarf Hollywood itself. It’s no exaggeration to say that a business that hasn’t tapped into this market (read: no website) is a bit behind the times.

It doesn’t stop at having a website, of course. Competition on the Web is ten times stiffer than the brick-and-mortar world, and a site needs a savvy blend of design, content, and credibility in order to stand out. Four elements make up the foundation of a good online business: the buying path, product placement, pricing, and company information.

The Buying Path

A study of kids’ Internet behavior suggests an unusual model for children’s sites: Amazon.com. Most kids, it shows, can easily find their way around Amazon than the average child-oriented website. This is because the retail giant has the “buying path” approach down pat. Amazon creates a clear line from the home page to the payment section, so users are instinctively led to browse and buy. Make it so that all they have to do is follow the arrows. Yes, Web users are spoiled like that—that’s just the way it is.

Product Placement

The rule is simple: people won’t buy what they can’t see. Place your products where people will naturally look for them. Don’t crowd the page with product specs; instead, place appropriate buttons for product options like sizes, colors, and accessories. Designers recommend putting them in the top left quadrant, the first place most visitors will check out.

Transparent Pricing

Web shoppers may be spoiled, but they aren’t stupid—not when it comes to spending, anyway. The worst thing you can do to a shopper, online or otherwise, is to burden them with last-minute fees on checkout. Be as transparent as possible when it comes to pricing your products. Include taxes, shipping, and other related costs up front. And in keeping with the buying path, throw in a prominent “Buy” button so they’ll know where to go.

Contact Information

This is where your credibility comes in. The Web may be convenient and all that, but people still like to think they’re dealing with real companies. They want a phone number they can call to track orders, an address they can visit for after-sales service, and (whether you like it or not) a person they can sue if something goes wrong. Contact information gives them that sense of security and makes them more comfortable about doing business with you.

You’ve heard it a thousand times: good design is essential to an online business. But you’d be surprised at the volume of marketing efforts that go to waste simply because of bad web design. Web marketing isn’t a personal project; it’s a public performance. You’re not designing for yourself; you’re addressing an entire potential market. Below are some design errors that can be fatal to your web marketing campaign.

Mistake #1: Putting design first

Don’t treat your SEO campaign as an afterthought, or an accessory to your design. The rule is to optimize first and design second. Pages should be built around search-optimized content, rather than the other way around. Do your keyword research (or bring in your search specialist) early in the site-building process, so you can plan out your navigation, headings, categories, and cross-links before building that first page.

Mistake #2: Unfocused content

Each of your pages must focus on one or two concepts. Even Amazon, the biggest retailer on the Web, will not overload you with products from every single department, even if you’re able to buy them all. Make sure each page has a focal point: something that looks clickable, a highlighted keyword phrase, or a few eye-catching pictures.

For example, with eCommerce sites, we recommend creating a custom front-page that focuses on the most important products. The objective is to guide your users to the sale with relative ease. Master the art of the unobtrustive sales pitch on the web.

Mistake #3: Making a splash page

Splash pages are those static images or Flash loops that require you to “Click to Enter” or “Skip Intro.” They may work for a teenager’s blog or an artist’s online portfolio. But in this search-engine-driven industry, they’ve long fallen  out of fashion. Splash pages ruin your marketing campaign because 1) they lack keywords; 2) they don’t have enough cross-links to boost your rankings; and 3) they turn off half your readers.

Mistake #4: The brochure syndrome

The brochure syndrome is common among older businesses moving their operations online. Its defining characteristic is a lack of forms—the site is basically a gallery, chic and impressive but unable to generate a single lead. Not everyone who visits your site will want to buy your stuff on the same day. Forms allow you to stay in touch and keep them interested until they’re ready to do business.

You’re designing your business website. If you’re like most designers, your first instinct is probably to draw up a catalog of layouts, color schemes, icons, and stock photos. But chances are you’re missing one important factor: white space.

Put simply, white space is the empty space between text, graphics, and other design elements. It’s easy to dismiss white space as a by-product of design, or whatever’s left after the designer has done his job. But good design requires you to treat white space as a vital part of the project. Just as you carefully plan out what to put on the page, you should also choose wisely what to leave out.

Why is white space important?
Long before the Web was born, people have been using white space in print, film, advertising, and even architecture. But what makes white space especially vital on the Web is the added strain on the reader’s eyes. Pixels are harsher on screen than on paper. White space, when properly placed, makes the page easier on the eyes and keeps people reading all the way to the sales page.

White space is not minimalism
A common misconception is that the use of white space makes your site minimalist. Actually, you can cram a page full of information and still have enough white space to make it readable. With careful selection of fonts, sizes, and colors, you can position white space so that readers are naturally led from one section to another.

Macro and micro white space
Macro white space is what you see at first glance, like the splash of white that greets your eyes when you enter an Apple store. On the Web, it’s the space around graphics, headings, and blocks of text, which helps create spatial relationships between these elements. Increasing or decreasing white space around an object makes it look more or less important in relation to the rest of the page.

Micro white space, on the other hand, is the space between the smaller parts of a visual element. A good example is the space between lines and letters in a paragraph. Too little whitespace makes it hard to read. But place letters t o o f a r a p a r t and people won’t know where one word ends and the other begins. Micro white space makes all the difference in terms of readability.