MaineBusiness.com

Online Video and the Entrepreneur

I have a pile on my desk. You know the kind. The kind where you put important but not urgent material. Of course, over time those items become more and more urgent...and then irrelevant.

I could tell how long it had been since I sorted through my "important but not urgent" pile because I found an article from the Wall St. Journal I had printed up on 12/26/07. It was called "Lights! Camera! Sales! How to use video to expand your business in a YouTube world." (Since this link was up as of today, I'm hoping it'll be around for a while.)

It's a great article by Raymund Flandez who profiles a number of entrepreneurs and small businesses talking about how they've used video to enhance their marketing and sales. From individual artists to an all natural soda company located in my home town of Scarborough, Maine, to a blender manufacturer, companies are creating videos that are driving demand for their products.

We've seen some success with our own clients who are posting videos online. Eli Newberger has posted both his tuba performances and his speaking gigs at the White House on the YouTube channel we created for him. He has 20 subscribers and has gotten over 5,800 channel views as of this post. That's driving a lot of additional traffic to his Web site.

Sabre Yachts and Newcastle Square Realty have also recently launched YouTube channels as well.

Keyword rich content may help with search engine rankings, but video engages customers in a way that text by itself rarely can.

Rich Brooks
As Seen on YouTube

Tourism's New Math: What Maine's Tourist Economy Needs Now

There's a front page article in the PPH today about a new method of calculating tourism's impact on the Maine economy, and a lot of people aren't happy about it. It's hard to know what the impact will be, but as the article notes,

If tourism promotion doesn't appear to be generating as much
bang for the buck as previously thought, [Vaughn Stinson, chief executive officer of the
Maine Tourism Association] said,
lawmakers could be less supportive of continued funding. His
concern is heightened by the state's budget shortfall.

The bottom line is that companies involved in the tourist industry here in Maine may be getting less support from the MTA, because there's less money to be spent on tourism marketing. This impacts ski resorts, hotels, B&B's, snow mobile rentals, restaurants, and a thousand other businesses that are part of or support the tourist industry.

If I were in tourism I would be planning ahead. Hopefully the funding will still be there, but the possible slack must be picked up by individual businesses. No surprise, but I'd be blogging, developing one or more email newsletters, budgeting money for search engine optimization, and reviewing my Web site based on my analytics. I'd be creating a presence on Facebook and MySpace. In short, I'd be preparing for the worst.

Even if the funding comes in at last year's levels, businesses that are marketing themselves--especially in a recession--will be in a better position to take advantage of it.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Maine Businesses

What is Mobile Marketing?

This afternoon I attended a fascinating seminar put on by the Maine Marketing Association on mobile marketing. Specifically, Andrew Newman of TextMoreInfo.com talked about how businesses can reach out and connect with people through SMS (short message service) on their cell phones. Although I've heard horror stories about how Starbucks will text you as you stand in front of a competitor's coffee shop (too Orwellian for me to even fathom), that wasn't the discussion today.

We focused on the type of approach you might see on American Idol or ESPN, when you text "WINNER" to 12345, or something like that. I definitely don't see this as a model that will work for all businesses...really, does anyone want to text flyte to get a message back on our SEO specials of the day?

However, any business that does some other type of advertising, such as tv or radio ads, outdoor signage, etc., could provide additional information to prospective consumers by providing an SMS code. I could certainly imagine For Sale signs with "Text 31MainSt to 12345" to get more information on a house that someone passes. Or texting a restaurant to find out what the daily special was.

I've cleaned up my notes from the meeting below, but you'll find them "as is." If you have any questions, I'd hop over to TextMoreInfo.com and talk to those guys. Even though Andrew said he was as much student as teacher, he definitely seem to have a grasp on the potential and pitfalls of mobile marketing.

Mobile Marketing: Why is this important?

• Millions have chosen cell phones, specifically text messaging, as preferred communication

What is SMS (short message service)?

• Allows short messages (160 max characters) from one cell to another
• aka "text messaging"
• now cells can communicate w/internet
• sometimes can include files such as images, ringtones, mp3s
• short codes: 5-6 #s; long codes 10 #s

How does it work?

• User initiates relationship by sending text message to short or long code #
• Cell carrier delivers message to aggregator (aggregators are required to convert cell message (SMS) to ones and zeroes of computer language)
• Aggregator delivers message to server
• Server takes the appropriate action based on program
• Back to aggregator > Back to carrier > Back to user
• Server can also take other actions, such as sending an email, deliver a file, etc.

Premium vs. Non-premium services

• Premium charges users for service
• Non-premium has no charge from provider, only carrier charges apply

Ethical sms?

• Should it be opt-in or opt-out?
• What's industry standard right now? (Still being developed; carriers keep on top of providers)
• There is a type of double opt-in; message back can include a request to opt-in further

Possible uses of SMS:

• Raffle: Text to 12345 and get a chance at $20K
• Voting
• Text to retrieve file (i.e., ringtone)
• Info updates (text flight # to 12345 and get gate and flight status)
• Subscription style updates: text to subscribe
• Event updates: ebay bid
• Product or service info (good if people are on the road, i.e., real estate?)
• Promotional updates on demand: text soup01 to 12345 and you'll receive text message w/soup of the day
• Delayed autoresponder
• Promotional updates by subscription
• Recruiting

Pros & Cons

• Pros:
  • Cost: after implementation cost of operating a program are low relative to other mediums
  • Costs include code leasing, aggregator costs, cost/message ($.10 - $.20)
  • Quality of impressions
  • Speed w/which message can be updated
  • Less spam, not like email
• Cons:
  • Fear of being spammed
  • Development of program if not using 3rd part can be significant
  • Implementation time: development is followed by provisioning (permission to access their network; this tends to be a royal pain in the ass)

Where is this going?

• Consumer
  • More people will be comfortable w/the medium
  • Confidence will build among users that the are secure from unwanted content
• Technology
  • Cell phones continue to evolve, adding new technology
  • There will be standards (eventually) as we see in video, HD
• Standards will result in widespread use of multimedia
  • The market
  • Will explode
  • 5% - 12% of budgets dedicated to alt. media will shit to mobile in 2008
  • spending will increase

Notes on Cost and ROI:

• Random short code: $500/mo
• Chosen short code: $1,000/mo
• Can you resell codes? (He thinks not.)
• What is the ROI? (No numbers yet…he provides some feedback on how many people call.)
• What other costs are there?
• What happens when someone texts a "wrong message" to a code? (404 error message)

Rich Brooks
Mobile Marketing Neophyte

Is Search Advertising Right for You?

Here's my dirty little secret: as a company, we haven't done a whole lot with search engine advertising, aka pay-per-click advertising, aka PPC. We've never done it for our own services (in large part because our organic listings at Google, Yahoo and other search engines keep us busy enough,) and we've only done it a handful of times for clients.

However, after reading How to Gain Instant Exposure with Search Advertising, I can't wait for the next opportunity. We're hopefully launching a few e-products this year, and it sounds like PPC is one of the right tools to generate tons of leads.

If you're having trouble ranking well organically, whether because you're a new site, your site isn't very search engine friendly, you rely too much on Flash, or you don't have enough content, PPC may be a cost-effective way of driving qualified leads to your site. However, you still need to keep on top of your ad buys and make sure they stay cost effective.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

The iPhone Up Close

If you've been thinking about getting an iPhone, but haven't had the chance to play with a friend's, I've got the next best thing.

I'll be talking about the iPhone on a "very special" episode of 207 tonight (1/15/08.) You can check it out on WCSH-6 at 7pm.

Rich Brooks
The Camera Puts on 10 Pounds

What is Your Web Site Doing for You?

• What drives more traffic to your Web site, search engine optimization or an ad in the local paper?
• How much business did your email newsletter generate for you last year?
• How much did each Web lead cost you last year? What was each one worth?

If you're like most business owners out there, you have no idea. And yet, chances are the answers are at your fingertips.

Almost all hosting companies offer some sort of traffic reports, no matter how rudimentary. If you're unsatisfied with your reports you can have your Web person install Google Analytics, a free traffic reports application that provides an unbelievable amount of detail in a user-friendly layout.

<shameless plug>

If you'd like to learn more about Google Analytics and how to read some of its most important reports, I'll be leading a workshop on Wednesday morning in Portland, Maine called Google Analytics for Online Success. We limit these workshops to just 10 people, so registration is required. The cost is $50 and we feed you, too!

</shameless plug>

Hope to see you there.

Rich Brooks
Analytics Retentive

Google Analytics: Web Marketing Seminar in Portland, Maine

In flyte's Holistic Web Marketing model the four components are:

• Attraction (driving traffic to your site)
• Retention (staying in communication w/customers even when they're not at your site)
• Conversion (getting visitors to take a desired step towards the sale) and
• Measurement (determining how effective different campaigns really are).

It's the last component, measurement, that we'll be talking about at our upcoming workshop, Google Analytics for Online Success.

Web marketing without measurement is like archery without a target. You don't know how well you're doing.

Traffic report programs such as Google Analytics help small business
owners and entrepreneurs understand which online marketing campaigns
are working and which ones should be dropped.

Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful analytics program that
can answer all of these questions and more. Best of all, the price of
the software can't be beat: $0.

Attendees will learn:

• How to setup and get the most out of Google Analytics.
• How to read and understand reports, and which reports are essential to your success.
• How to set up Goals so you can track which traffic streams are worth the most to your business.
• How to analyze these reports to make changes to your Web site and improve your conversion rates.

Date: Wednesday, 1/16/2008

Time: 8am - 9:30am

Place: flyte's offices (directions)

Cost: $50, includes coffee & danish type edibles

Registration is required, and the workshop is limited to just 10 people, so REGISTER NOW!

Rich Brooks
flyte school instructor

Mobile Marketing Lunch & Learn

Mobile marketing is a growing field as almost everyone carries cell phones, GPS devices, and other mobile tools...heck, even the new iPod touch as Internet capabilities.

I'm not sure what the future will bring, but I plan on learning more at All You Need to Know About Mobile Marketing: The Good, The Bad and Everything In Between, a lunch and learn put on by Maine Marketing Association.

Date: Wednesday, 1/23/08
Time: 11:30 - 1pm
Place: Chamber of Commerce, 60 Pearl St., Portland
Cost: $15 for members, $25 for non-members, $10 for students

Hope to see you there!

Rich Brooks
Going Mobile

Throw a Better Party with Google Analytics

Don't you sometimes wish that you had you're own personal Cyrano de Bergerac, handing you lines and giving you advice on wooing the girl (or guy), and in general making you a more popular, more lively party guest?

No? Well, I guess it's just me.

In any case, if you think of your Web site as your cocktail party, and Google Analytics (GA) as Cyrano de Bergerac, you can see where I'm going with this month's flyte log: How Google Analytics Can Make You the Life of the Party.

In this issue of our Web marketing ezine, we look at some of the nuggets of information we can gather from GA on how to make our Web site a more inviting, more engaging place that will attract and retain guests.

Almost forgot! This month's flyte school workshop is called Google Analytics for Online Success. If you'd like to learn even more about how Google Analytics can help you make more money online, register now!

Date: Wed., 1/16
Time: 8am - 9:30am
Place: flyte's offices (directions)
Cost: $50, includes continental breakfast
Limited to Just 10 Attendees, so REGISTER NOW!

(Yes, I plan on doing some webinars in the very near future! Please be patient!)

Rich Brooks
The Host with the Most