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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
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Wrapping up the rules for new-media marketing
Last in a four parts
LAST week we discussed the sixth, seventh and eighth of the Ten Commandments of New-Media Marketing Success.
>> No. 6: Thou shalt participate, comment, and converse in context.
» No. 7: Thou shalt only call it content if it's linkable.
» No. 8: Thou shalt assume that readers will enter your site from any page.
HERE are the last two guiding principles:
» No. 9: Thou shalt encourage participation on individual pages.
Some of this is already built into blogging software, through commenting and trackbacks that encourage participation. Commenting and trackbacks should be prominent at the bottom of all of your posts or articles. You can even add plug-ins such as a convenient button to click that will send your article as an e-mail to the participant's friends.
Not everyone is up to speed on RSS, nor understands how a blog works, so you don't want to make it difficult for people who are new to the New Media. Make it easy to generate a printer-friendly page or send an article to a friend via e-mail.
» No. 10: Thou shalt test and track often.
Don't assume that what you are writing about is what people are interested in -- at least not in the words you are using. You've done all your research correctly with your target audience, you're talking about the right topics, but if the keywords you're using are not triggering anyone's interest or being used in open Internet searches, you'll catch fewer people's attention than you could if you scientifically test your results.
You can maximize buzz when you use words that your target audience uses in everyday conversation. Once again, we're right back to the importance of communicating and connecting with your audience and clients.
To get feedback, you can post popularity surveys and use different words to describe the same topic and see what people choose.
It doesn't matter if only several dozen people respond to such a survey. That's better than assuming that you know what words are good trigger words for your audience.
Tracking is another way to see what words and topics are generating the most interest. You want to monitor and track through your server logs and/or traffic analysis software. You also want to track your links when you're linking out, whether it's in a post or it's in a sidebar or a special promotion, to make sure you know what's working.
THE purpose of the Ten Commandments of New-Media Marketing Success is to make sales. Each of these guiding principles is pivotal to the online sales process and your ultimate success.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach at RPM Success Group Inc. Reach him at
JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business success coach and life strategist. Reach her at
DCM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.