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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
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Are your online efforts off the mark?
NEW-MEDIA marketing is the most efficient way to reach your target audience online. That includes podcasting, tagging, social networking, and blogging for business, just to name a few.
But most businesses are missing the boat and falling behind on the experience curve. And even many of the smartest online marketers experimenting with these tools are still getting it wrong because they're missing an important strategic component.
Business owners and marketers have begun to experiment with inserting ads into blogs, podcasts, and RSS feeds. More aggressive marketers have been executing viral campaigns using new-media tools. And, some are even stepping into the new-media marketplace by starting to use blogs for business.
While business blogging and these other tactics all have a place, they are just that -- tactics. They are one-way actions that insert "interruption" or a mass-media style of marketing into new-media channels.
This is where business owners and marketers are making the mistake. Marketing effectively with business blogs and new media requires a strategic shift in focus to people, participation, and persuasion.
Tactics will only take you so far. Strategy is what separates the winners from losers in business, both online and off-line. Interruption marketing is dying on the vine. The writing is on the wall from TIVO to Google, Yahoo, and MSN as they completely revamp their search algorithms to prefer LIVE (new media) content.
But the changes go well beyond getting top rankings in search engines. As your prospects and clients have gained experience and comfort with the Internet, their online activities have naturally expanded into areas that are more natural, social activities. As that has been happening, a subtle, yet even more powerful shift has been taking place. Online activity is increasingly mirroring off-line communication. This means that influence and persuasion are becoming just as essential to effective marketing online as it is in making sales off-line.
Standard Web sites and Web Marketing 1.0 cannot be used to build rapport, trust, and relationships online. It's just not possible. The answer is found in having the right new-media strategy, using persuasion through business blogs, podcasts, social networking, and a host of other interactive tools on the Internet.
If you're new to blogging for business and new-media marketing, don't worry -- you are not too late. Get started marketing with blogs and new media today. Your action will put you way ahead of your competitors on the experience curve (and in search engine rankings too!).
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.