Internet Entrepreneurs and Startup Think Tank

4 KEY Tactics of Online Marketing - #1 You’re Up

// May 8th, 2009 // Search Engine Marketing

Today I spent some time thinking about this post while meeting with two very smart guys, Mike Donegan & Steve Patti.  Mike works with GetPageOne and Steve with The Permission Network.  The conversations we had were very engaging, stimulating and educational for us all.

The common thread in the two discussions was about how the world of marketing is being turned upside down for many that are still stuck doing the traditional thing - interrupting people.  As far as online marketing is concerned there are 4 key tactics that many businesses need to figure how to use and fast.

4 Key Tactics of Online Marketing

The 4 tactics I am referring to are:  Search Marketing, Social Media, Video Marketing & this is key Analytics & Measurement (you could also include Social Monitoring as a 5th).

1. Search Marketing (optimization)
2. Social Media (thought leadership & listening)
3. Video Marketing
4. Analytics & Metrics

I like to repeat things so that it sets in

#1 You’re Up

Right!  Search, how do you FIND anything these days?  Yep, you Google it!  If you’re not on the 1st page it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be found when someone wants to buy or become familiar with what you can offer.  And, if you’re not there yet — I’m not but working on it — the good news is that you can work on it or you can buy some placement on that 1st page until you can get there on your own.

Search is not going away anytime soon and more and more people need to understand how critical it is for youe business when customers want to find you.  Ok, how can you get started with Search?

Well, how about starting with where you are with your current web property.  You may need a redesign or you may just need to tweak things but, the important thing is to discover where you are.

There are a couple of tools you can use to get started and for the time being let’s focus on a Website Analyzer tool built by Ryan Kelly at Pear Analytics (Ryan’s a good friend and a smart cat).  To get started just enter your website address in the widget below and your email so you can get the FREE report sent to you.

Once you submit your site you should have a short term action plan on a few things to start working on to improve your site.   If your site does not need major surgery, consider getting the things done on the list as soon as possible.  If you need help getting the items completed let’s talk about what your overall long-term goals might be first and I’d be glad to help set up a discussion with GetPageOne & Pear Analytics to explore your specific needs.

In my next post I will talk a little about how you can begin to understand where you are benchmark-wise from a social media perspective.  Then, well touch on video marketing and analytics.  There is so much to discuss and explore with you but, I’d like to leave you with this short video from Matt Cutts, a Google Search Engineer.