SEORoss Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Hey all!Been lurking here for a few months, and was so wrapped up in all of the advice/testing/testing/testing that I never took 2 minutes to register...so here I am!Pleasure to meet ya!I just wanted to take the time to chime in with a little friendly marketing advice for those of you who are perhaps looking for creative or more non-traditional forms of getting your candles/products "out there". Hope you don't mind, and I hope it gives you an idea or two. -- Oh...and let me qualify the following info - I've worked as an internet marketing specialist for several years as a hobby, and then I took the corporate plunge and started doing it for a local digital publishing company. I'm a total geek about this stuff, and I noticed that quite a few of you could use some help! 1. Twitter - Before you sigh out of curious frustration, let me tell you - Twitter is a SBOs (small business owner) GOLDMINE. At first, everybody thought Twitter was a glorified geeky way of posting nonsense about your day, and in some respects, it still is....but oh let me tell you, with "local search" being the hottest topic of the year, and with Twitter's ability to let small and large business owners connect directly with their customers in real-time - I'll go as far as saying that if you run a business, and you're not "Tweeting" with your "Tweeps" then you're missing out on business. Not to mention the fact that Twitter is one of the easiest (and FREE) ways to spread the word about your product. Seriously, folks, the company that I work for would not pay me what they pay me if they thought my daily Twitterings about the company weren't bringing in leads for the sales team. I'll leave it at that (any questions, just PM me). 2. Blog - Yeah, I would guess a good portion of you are at least somewhat familiar with the blogosphere, but for those that aren't, then you're in for a surprise! Whether you run a full e-commerce site with a blog on the side, or maybe even just a blog by itself as the face of your company, blogs can be a wonderful and POWERFUL tool to spread the word about your candles and also one of the easiest ways to brand yourself in the digital world. If you're a complete noob to blogging, I would recommend Blogger.com or Wordpress.com (free blogging services) to get started. Just sign up, customize your blog to your ability, and start talking about your product. The other "fancy" stuff will come in time...the free blogs are just a way for you to get your feet wet. When you're ready to step it up to a self-hosted Wordpress.org blog, well, then we'll talk about some serious action! Again, about 50% of my responsibility at my company is keeping up with their blog (which I launched last year). It really works!3. Facebook - Again, this is another social networking tool that 99% of you know about, and a good portion of that 99% probably use it to some degree....but did you know that promoting your business on Facebook is one of the easiest and most powerful way to build a virtual "following" of your brand/product? Some of the most successful companies out there are promoting their facebook pages in huge ad campaigns. Why? Because it works! They understand that millions of people use it every day, and regular people like to connect with companies that are "in touch". Some average companies have Facebook fan pages with hundreds of thousands or even millions of fans...that's because when someone likes your product, they WILL talk about it, and one of the quickest ways to spread that ever-so-desirable "word of mouth" is virtuall, on networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc...Anyhow, to start a Facebook page for your business, here's the link. 4. Squidoo & Hubpages - These types of sites are sort of like mini-websites that revolved around a specific topic. Why use these and not just your regular website or a blog? Ideally, you want to combine the best of all worlds and use everything. Squidoo.com "lenses" and HubPages sites are easy, free, and quite the compliment to your existing website and/or blog. In a nutshell, you create a page (typically the name of your business, but make sure you get a keyword or two in there...like "candles", "soap", "bath & body" or whatever it is that you sell). These mini-pages serve as awesome FREE billboards for your existing website, and the reason they are useful is because Google and other search engines trust them - in other words, they already have a lot of good existing search engine "juice". Chances are good that those pages will rank higher and faster than if you just used a blog or website. That's why they're good for complimenting your current web scheme. Take advantage of their "juice" and boost your overall SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. On these mini-pages, you can add links to your own website/blog, videos, pics, articles, recipes, or anything else you want to share. Remember, search engines LOVE fresh, unique content, so the more you add, the more search engine spider action it will receive! Any questions on these types of sites - just let me know 5. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) - The methods above are all mostly in the realm of "free" when it comes to cost, but this one isn't - and for good reason. Just a quick primer, if you're not sure what I mean by "PPC", go do a quick Google search for just about anything...try "cell phones". See all the ads at the top and on the right hand side of your results page? Those are all paid ads. The companies running those ads are "bidding" on those positions. It's a very fast and efficient way to get TONS of relevant customers looking at your company name (and hopefully clicking through to your website). Anyone can run PPC ads (and all the major search engines have PPC programs, heck, even Facebook allows you to run ads!) and it's not all that difficult! Now you're probably wondering how this would benefit a chandler? Simple - go do a quick Google search for "homemade candles". It's a VERY active keyword! LOTS of business to be had - why aren't you appearing in the PPC ads? I did some quick research, and the keyword "homemade candles" (and similar phrases), gets over 10,000 searches per month (in Google alone!). You could easily grab a piece of that pie and it doesn't have to cost a fortune either. When you set up these PPC ads (basically you write a small ad, then pick an amount...say .40 cents, that you're willing to pay when someone clicks it), you can set daily or monthly budgets so that you never go over your advertising budget. Heck, start with $25 for the month and see what happens...you may be surprised! Google calls their PPC program "Google Adwords", which you can find here. They even start you out in a "beginner" mode, and it's extremely easy to use. Give it a whirl!Okay, I'll stop there...I don't want to bring too much "information overload"...but my point is - I see a WONDERFUL group of people here that produce a HOT prouct that people WILL buy - you just have to get their eyeballs on it! Luckily, in this digital age, you can do that and all it costs you is your time. So if you're wiling to invest a little time and research, it could really pay off for the long run. Again, candles are smoking hot right now (no pun intended) - as they are one of life's little luxuries that don't cost a fortune. In this economic downturn, people are looking for the simple pleasures, and YOU GUYS CAN GIVE IT TO THEM! Lastly, I've given more of a top level overview for the methods above, so if you need more detailed information, by all means, let me know. I've received tons of free advice on this forum, and I have no problem chipping in with my skill set. For the bigger "fish" out there, I do SEO/social media consulting on the side, so if you're ever looking for someone to setup a little campaign for your business, (don't worry, I don't charge a fortune - I'm just a regular dude ) just drop me a message. Hope this helps someone out there, or at the very least, inspires you to learn more about this new exciting advertising age. Now, I have candles to test, so I'll holler at you later!Ross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassyQ Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Wow!! Thanks for all that great information! I for one have not been taking advantage of all that simply because I fear it would be so over my head doing any of it. I am certainly going to check into it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennyjo Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Thanks Ross and It's nice to meet you. My hubby and I both studied Marketing in college, but this is the stuff that they don't teach. I am going to try to get my feet wet with some of these ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CibariaSoapSupply Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Great list! Glad to see that more are realizing the power of social media! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEORoss Posted June 1, 2009 Author Share Posted June 1, 2009 Nice to meet all of you as well! Hopefully you can take an idea or two out of this novel of a post And yes, Cibaria, I agree! Social media is HOT, and only getting hotter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessiec Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Thanks for the awesome tips, Ross! Hopefully, I'll get to put them to good use soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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