Using Groupon to sell your products and services falls loosely under the umbrella of Internet Marketing. It is not a traditional Internet marketing activity, rather, it is a one-time sales/promotional activity...hence the term loosely.

Before you actually use Groupon, do take the time to evaluate whether Groupon will work for you or not. Regardless of how you proceed, we highly recommend reading Inc Magazine's article on the 10 Pros and Cons for Using Groupon. Read at: http://arni.ma/gp-con.

One of my pet peeves revolves around companies that do not publish a phone number anywhere on their website. Instead, they rely on email, live-chat, trouble ticket systems and these so-called user forums to interact with their prospective customers. Now, since we are not a customer of any such company, we do not know whether they provide a contact number and we do now know how they handle post-sales support and customer management

We were recently researching shopping cart systems for one of our clients and we came across a particular shopping cart vendor - one of the 2 we had shortlisted - that did not provide a telephone number anywhere on their website! Our client is investing a not-so-insignificant amount of money in their website and in order to do them justice, we wanted to speak to the shopping cart vendor's sales team. At that very moment. We wanted some questions answered so we could make a decision and get moving on the project. Just so you know, this vendor's shopping cart license cost starts at over ten thousand dollars - per year! Despite that, they required us to submit a fill-in form to get pricing and support and other details.

We did not want to "fill-in" a contact form and we did not want to submit a ticket to their system and we most definitely did not want to post a question in their forum. We trolled their entire website and we still could not find a telephone number. We even went so far as to search for them on Facebook, LinkedIn and despite all of that, we still could not find a phone number. And trust us; if the information is on the Internet, we know how to find it!

In the end, this particular vendor lost our business (and will never get our business). Instead, we selected the next vendor - because they provided their contact details and we were able to get in touch with their sales team - immediately and get all our questions answered.

Given the intense competition and the sheer number of options available, is it not critical to allow your potential customer to contact you in as many ways as possible?

Inbound leads that are generated on your website (whether it is a form-fill or call-in) go stale almost immediately!

Your chances of qualifying such leads decrease by a factor of 21 times if you wait beyond 30 minutes to contact them!

Check out this blog post by Tim Ash, a landing page optimization at Site Turners.

Most people involved in SEO are familiar with primary link sources such as directories, press release websites, blogs, forums, article syndication websites, social networks and bookmarking portals. However, as part of your link building, consider the following alternative sources that can provide you with much needed link juice:

Customized 404 Pages
Just be sure that missing pages on your website are not impacting inbound link numbers. If someone links to your website and they get a 404 error, you may be missing out on potential incoming links. Be sure to address this problem. If you have your own custom 404 error pages, do a crawl test (available in Google Webmaster Tools) to identify broken links and put in place permanent 301 redirects to appropriate pages on your website. Oh, and do test the links individually after you implement the 301 redirects.

Testimonials
It may be worth contacting some website whose products & services you use and discuss the possibility of you providing them with a testimonial in order to get an inbound link from them. This may take a bit of work but the results are well worth it, especially if you can get a link from a highly ranked website.

Wiki’s
Apart from Wikipedia, there are a large number of other Wiki’s that cover a very large number of topics. Links from Wikis are beneficial and generally tend to be in-content external links that appear within the body of an article, or content. Search Engines assign a high value to such links despite the fact that some of them place “nofollow” attributes. Some examples: Google’ sKnol and AboutUs.org.

Free Press Release Websites
SEO experts are familiar with PRWeb.com. However, there are several other free press release distribution websites that can provide you with high value links. Some of them don’t allow the creation of anchor text links but these websites are indexed and do appear in search engine result pages. Some examples are 24-7PressRelease.com, PRlog.org and PR.com.

Social Network Profiles and Pages
A lot of social media websites allow you to create custom profiles using your name, or that of your business. Take advantage of this. Do remember that idle social media profiles can do more damage than good so be sure to do periodic updates. The frequency of the updates will depend on you business and on your service and/or product and industry.

.edu pages
Links from educational organizations are highly trusted by search engines. Although difficult to obtain, you can create a profile on your educational organization’s alumni section, or you can create a profile on a sorority, fraternity or educational related volunteer website that may be linked to your alma mater.

Did you know that Google now holds the badge of being the Internet’s largest mobile advertising company? Google acquired AdMob in late 2009 and that squarely placed Google on the map as one of the top mobile advertising companies. Google will leverage its Android platform in direct competition with Apple’s iPhone.  Some consider this to be a frontal attack on Apple and iPhone’s most serious advantage over Android – mobile apps. Developers are likely to capitalize on this move by starting to develop mobile ads for the Android Network that is spread across multiple networks.

In short, the Mobile world is now a huge marketplace with massive revenue potential and is on its way to becoming the next battleground for online advertising.

The next few months will see the mobile Internet advertising heating up, especially with the release of newer, faster and user-rich devices.

One word: ABSOLUTELY!

The Internet trend watching site, eMarketer quoted an Ad-ology survey conducted earlier this month that reveals some rather alarming numbers: 46% of small and medium business owners did not have a website in 2009.  Another study conducted by VistaPrint found that only about 50% of small business owners that have a website are actually tracking their online marketing efforts! And the icing on the cake is a study from a Discover Small Business Watch Poll that corroborates Ad-ology’s survey results and goes on to state that a lot of small and medium business owners perceive the need for a website for their business as a “myth”.

This begs the question: As a small or medium business owner, what are you losing out on if you don’t have your own website?

The answer is very clear: Customers!

Come on folks! We are just about ready to start year 2010. People are no longer using the (actual) yellow pages or phone books to look for information. The three major search engines are serving up local search results even when a search does not include a local or geographical qualifier. The bottom line: Small and Medium businesses need web presence that they can directly influence and control.

There are many ways for you to establish web presence. Of course, you can go Yelp or use other social media websites such as Merchant Circle and get a “listing” but always remember, you don’t control any of these. You have zero say on how they will allow you to connect with customers. It is better than nothing… but sadly it is still not enough.

Your very own website gives you the ability to:
-Provide information and details about your products and services to people all over the world
-Set yourself apart from your competition, especially if they don’t have a website
-Become visible to the growing population that rely solely on the internet for information
-Harness the power of social media and social websites, the new word of mouth
-Properly and effectively leverage local search results from search engines
-Establish yourself as an authority with your customers and within your industry
-Build credibility with your customers by sharing information about your company
-Build and create your own community (social network)
-Leverage email marketing by building an email list and using that to market to potential clients

Before you jump on the website bandwagon, take the time to identify why you need a website. Remember, not all small businesses have the same “web presence” goals. Whether you want to simply promote your idea, sell products and services or build an online community, give it serious thought and plan your web presence goals.

So, now that you’ve got your goals planned, how do you go about getting yourself a website?

Website Domain: We recommend that you start by picking your website’s domain (that would be in the form of yourbusiness.com). In most cases, the domain name you end up with will be similar to your company or business name. Make sure that you book/register the domain name and that you retain ownership of the domain. We have come across situations where a website designer or development company booked a domain on behalf of a client and then refused to relinquish control of the domain name when the relationship changed.

Design & Development: Hire a professional company to design and develop your website. Don’t skip this step. We can tell you countless horror stories where people did not hire the right professional. If you want a proper image, look and feel, go to an expert.  The bottom line is that your website needs to look professional. The exact type of website you end up with will depend on several factors: your brand, your industry, your products or services and your business model.

Website Content: Content is KING on the web. Content is what your potential visitors are after. Content will give you a boost in your SEO (Website Search Engine Optimization) efforts. You do not need a website with lots of pages of content – the aim here is to provide potential clients with the right information about your business and what you are all about. We recommend that you have, at minimum, a 5-6 page website: Home Page, About, Contact, Products, Services and Testimonials and maybe even a Portfolio or Projects Page. The Contact page is essential so that you can leverage local business listings on search engines.

Website Hosting: Unless you already have website hosting in place, we recommend that you stick with your website design company (of course, they should offer website hosting as part of their services) even if you end up paying a little extra for website hosting. Whilst there are many affordable website hosting choices, it is best to stick with your design company because chances are that they know their hosting platforms best. An added benefit of getting hosting through your website design company is having a single contact, avoiding confusion about who’s responsibility it is if your website has an issue. Oh, and be sure that you get enough email addresses to cover your needs. Your email address should be you@yourbusiness.com.

Local Search Engine Listings: Make sure you grab your local listings on Google, Yahoo, Bing , Best-of-the-Web and any other third party websites. Go to www.getlisted.org to see if you are listed, and how complete your local listing is.

Internet Marketing: Again, hire a professional Internet marketing company that can assist you to prepare and complete an Internet Marketing Strategy that will include a Social Media plan, an Internet Marketing plan, Search Engine Optimization and Paid Advertising recommendations. The world of Internet Marketing can be daunting and it is best to have professional guidance so that you get the best return on investment (ROI).

On a final note, small and medium business owners are increasingly using the Internet as a marketing channel – this fact is upheld by the 36% increase of SMB owners who have created websites over the past 2 years. This number, no doubt, will increase in 2010 and beyond. Search Engines are putting more and more emphasis on local business listings which in turn makes your website an integral component of your business and marketing.

In short, get a website if you don’t have one!

Landing Pages vs Mircosites

While they are different from one another, microsites and landing pages are both used in conjunction with search engine optimization, search engine marketing and online advertising for more targeted content.

Landing Pages
Landing pages are usually one-page creations that focus on a particular offer and specifically on leading the visitor to take certain action. Landing pages are used for direct marketing campaigns and are considered to be essential to the success of these campaigns. All savvy marketers use and test hundreds of different landing pages in order to optimize conversion rates.

Microsites
Microsites are one or more Web pages used for a number of purposes:

-Consumer goods companies may market a new product, because the main website may leave the product underexposed; a microsite will focus on that particular product or service and provide extensive details and information.

-A magazine may want cover a time-sensitive and popular event, such as the upcoming presidential election or some world championship and may leverage a microsite.

-A software company may offer its clients more information on a product, which cannot be posted on a simple landing page and adding several pages to its main website would mean burying the information and relying on visitors to feel their way through to the specific information.

In most cases microsites and landing pages are created to convert visitors into leads. Microsite also result in increased SEO opportunities.  Microsites are typically hosted on a different domain than the primary website and contain sometimes multiple pages of topic-related content for high organic search rankings. Most savvy marketers tend to use both microsites and landing pages somewhere along the way. And if microsites are hosting on multiple- C IPs (SEO-hosting), the results can be even more considerable.

Article syndication is the process of distributing articles for simultaneous publication on a number of web sites and article directories.

Articles provide a chance to share information and establish yourself as an expert and create opportunities for you to direct new traffic to your website, establish new links into your website, and provide fresh and relevant content for both your visitors and search engines, which results in higher ranking.

How does Article Syndication work?

-you write an interesting and valuable article
-you then find a service that will provide article syndication
-find sources where you can market the articles yourself
-post your article on your site and wait a few days to make sure the web spiders index your page
-create accounts at the article sources you found and start submitting your articles
-follow syndication guidelines (if they allow HTML editing, require unique content that hasn’t been published before, require the articles to be on your own page, allow multiple submissions per month etc.)

Benefits of Article Syndication:

Brand awareness
Publishing articles to multiple article directories boosts your online visibility. You have your own name/company name in the anchor text, which makes you more popular to the audience

Obtain Higher rankings
Keyword-rich articles are a sure way to improve your incoming links and improve your search engine rankings.

Longer life span
Articles posted in directories are rarely removed. The fact that articles written have a much longer life span shows just how important this marketing tool can be.

Direct traffic
The articles posted on article directories are a great way to get direct traffic to your website. Plus, the readers click through to your website, bringing you getting valuable targeted traffic to your website.

Many businesses think that once they have built their opt-in lists, all they have to do is wait for customers to literally break their doors down for their product or service. Well, that’s not quite the case. In order to really acquire loyal customers, you need to communicate with them on a constant basis and offer them something of value. Remember the old adage, what’s in it for me? As long as you have your customers best interest in mind, you can win your their loyalty for your business.

Here’s how:

1. Offer valuable, rich content.
Don't just throw subscribers a couple of bones, but give them solid information that they can actually use that would want them to read next month's issue.

2. Create a theme and a name.
Create a newsletter that is meaningful and positions your company as a trusted source of information. Instead of cluttering your newsletter with everything you’ve done the past few month, choose a theme and a name that frames your information and grabs attention.

3. Keep it simple.
Keep your newsletter brief, but offer solid, valuable content. If you make it too long or stuffed with too much information, chances are that clients won’t read it all. Go for a readable length of around 1 to 3 pages, including a response area.  You can even use a dedicated blog to house your newsletters.

4. Call to action.
Always place a call to action, be it a request for more details, the option to place an order, a survey, etc. If you ask something from your clients, they are more likely to respond. This works in most industries as long as you offer a product or service that your customers would want.

5. Be Viral.
Use e-mail forwarding. Encourage your customers to share your newsletter with others who may be interested in what you're offering. Make it easy for new visitors to subscribe through a link in each issue of your newsletter

Starting a business without a proper business plan is generally considered a recipe for failure. Similarly, a solid web marketing strategy is a critical part of your online success.

A solid web marketing strategy should cover the following aspects:

1. Help you understand your niche market. This way, after you take the "pulse" of your audience, you can easily create and sell your product or service, in a way that would grab attention and produce visible results.

2. To sell massively, you must ensure you attract potential customers and increase traffic to your website. You can do this by implementing SEO and PPC.

3. Once you have consistent traffic, you have to do everything you can to turn your visitors into buyers. It’s best if you can provide a wide range of products and services at different prices and also offer your prospective clients all the information they need.

4. Maintaining an open channel of communication with your visitors is essential. Allows your visitors to directly approach you and solve their queries so they can easily make a purchasing decision.

To conclude, your web marketing strategy supports your business objective and defines how you will achieve your goals.