When it comes to marketing your business, do you take the approach that most people take by trying to reach every human being within earshot, or do you take the approach that effective marketers take by engaging in meaningful dialog with your most relevant prospects?

I recently engaged in a debate with a rather uninformed member of the advertising/marketing industry who insisted that television advertising was the only way to go and that other forms of marketing, such as direct mail and search engine optimization, were not effective. Unfortunately, not only was this person completely incorrect, he was also squandering his clients’ resources with ineffective marketing advice. Not only is television advertising significantly less effective than it used to be, it’s also a medium that requires a fairly large budget to deliver decent results. A budget of several thousand dollars spent on television advertising would give you a reasonable number of commercials, however, they would be spread out among several channels and times, and you wouldn’t likely achieve any degree of consistency by reaching the same prospects on a regular basis ? which is critical to a successful campaign. On the other hand, a direct mail postcard campaign with the same budget would allow you to reach a more targeted group of prospects of a consistent and frequent basis, achieving greater results.

The goal of marketing is to convert your prospects into paying clients, which you will only do if you consistently communicate with them. This is especially important in today?s world of fragmented media. People no longer sit in front of the television all night long, or read the newspaper every day. More people are getting their news from the internet than ever before, and those people watching television are increasingly turning to technology such as video on demand and DVR, eliminating television commercials all together. In order to effectively reach your prospects in today’s world, you must utilize a variety of marketing mediums spanning both off-line and on-line options. Traditional mediums are not a waste of money, but they should be a smaller part of a complete marketing campaign, rather than the end all, be all solution that they were in the past. Businesses that fail to embrace the evolving marketing landscape will die out one by one, and thankfully, the marketing companies that fail to embrace it will die out as their clients either go out of business or move on to more effective marketing companies. Focus on convincing 10% of your prospects 100% to do business with you and you will succeed, focus on convincing 100% of your prospects 10% to do business with you and you will fail.

The latest Nielsen/NetRatings report ranking search providers by number of searches is in, and the lion’s share of queries again belongs to Google. An estimated 2.8 billion search queries were conducted at Google Search, or 49% of all search queries in May. As usual, Yahoo followed in second place, with a meager 23% while MSN limps painfully behind, pulling in only 11% of the total search queries for the month.

The report is available in it’s entirety in PDF format here.

I was listening to television a few nights ago while writing an article, and heard a commercial for Carrabba’s (a chain of Italian restaurants) that was rather disturbing. It wasn’t that they said something that I disagreed with, or even that their message was offensive in any way, but rather that it wasn’t thought out carefully enough.

“People are our specialty.”

Really? How do you normally prepare them? More importantly, where do you get them? I would imagine that even in the most twisted areas of the world, this sort of thing would generally be frowned upon. Now, even the simplest of minds would understand their true message, but I think most people would have had the same tongue in cheek type of questions after seeing this commercial. This certainly isn’t the reaction that they were after.

Bush Gardens recently made a similar oversight, saying that “children are free” in the television and radio commercials that they have been running. So, I have to wonder, is there a limit on the number of free children that you can get from Bush Gardens? Also, do you get to choose the child or are they handed out randomly? The list of questions could go on, but for the sake of brevity, it won’t.

The point here is to make sure that you understand the importance of determining how others may interpret your advertising message. A well crafted marketing plan coupled with a heavy advertising campaign will not do you any good if you’re the only person that sees your message as you intended it to be seen. Can it be easily misconstrued? Is it ambiguous? If people have to take time to figure out what you’re trying to say, they will move on, but if they take it the wrong way, they may be offended and move on for good. Take some time to run your advertising by a few other people to get their reaction. It will help you to avoid spending money on ineffective or counter productive advertising.

Yahoo and three other companies have been sued over trademark infringement, for bidding on trademarked brands as keyword phrases in Google’s AdSense pay-per-click program.

The lawsuit, filed in Colorado by JP Enterprises, claims that Yahoo and the others were bidding on keyword phrases using variations of the domain name of their dating web site. Yahoo and the other two companies named in the lawsuit run their own online personals services. JP Enterprises says that companies purchasing keywords in this manner causes consumer confusion and negatively influence their sales.

This, coming on the heels of a recent lawsuit between Geico and Google, seems to have a pretty predictable outcome. In her written opinion, the judge wrote that using “Geico” in the headline or text of a sponsored link ad is trademark infringement but that Google’s selling of those keywords is acceptable. Many lawyers believe that this decision could catalyze a plethora of new lawsuits as companies sue each other over the keywords used in their pay-per-click campaigns.

Not too long ago, Kinderstart, a parental advice web site, was in the media for suing Google over loosing their rankings, and as a result, loosing traffic and revenue. As part of their lawsuit, Kinderstart wants Google to reveal how it ranks web sites.

While this is (in my opinion) a frivolous and stupid lawsuit, it can teach business owners a valuable lesson about what happens when we rely too much on any one source of revenue for our business. This doesn’t just apply to the internet either. If all of your new clients come from your advertising in a particular magazine, and that magazine goes out of business or sells your advertising space to another advertiser willing to pay a higher price, where do you think that will leave you?

This doesn’t even touch on the fact that Google, and every other search engine is allowed to do what ever they want. If you managed to achieve high ranking for your web site, either by chance, or as the result of an effective SEO campaign, you should see it as gravy. They are not required or obligated to even list your web site, let alone list it on the first page. As their algorithms change, your web site may move up or down in the SERPs, but remember that their customers are the visitors using their web site to search for something, not the web site owners. If some guy started a business tomorrow called “The Good Business Bus” and drove passengers around to all of the local businesses that he felt were reputable, you would probably be pretty happy when he came by your business with his passengers. On the other hand, if his opinion of you business changed and he no longer stopped there with his busload of passengers, you probably wouldn’t try to sue him because you know you would have no legal ground to stand on. The Kinderstart/Google story is the same, unfortunately, Kinderstart hasn’t been bright enough to realize it yet.

Internet marketing and search engine optimization are necessary components of a complete marketing campaign, but you should never rely on them as your only source of new business.

Unless you built your web site to show pictures of your cat to people all over the world, you probably want them to take some sort of action before leaving, most likely, in the form of exchanging their hard earned dollars for your valuable products or services. Unfortunately, most web sites are not designed to do this effectively. On the other hand, by following some basic usability guidelines, you can significantly increase the number of visitors that become customers.

• Avoid intro, splash, or entry pages. A visitor is at you web site for a particular reason, whether they’re looking for a Spanish translator, portable sound systems, or a marketing company, so they don’t want to wait for a movie to load or have to click a link before entering. Also, avoid music that begins automatically. If someone visits your web site at work and music begins to blast from their speakers, they will immediately close you page to avoid being caught conducting personal business.
• Ensure that your navigation is simple to use. Visitors won’t think that you are clever if they have to spend any amount of time figuring out how your navigation works. Stick to the basics and keep your menu across the top, or down the left or right side of the web page. You may also consider adding an additional menu at the bottom of the web page. As an added measure, you should include a site map.
• Include your contact information on each page. This should consist of at least a phone number and email, if not your mailing address. this makes it easy for visitors to contact you and instills confidence that you are a real company rather than some fly by night operation.
• Design your web site for most major browsers that your visitors may be using. If your web site sells computer games, chances are than most of your visitors will have the most current browser available and you can use more advanced technologies, however, if your web site sells crochet products, you should probably design your web site to work in older browsers because your visitors probably won’t have the most current browser.

More than a few web site owners are out there trying to climb to the top of the SERPs with varying levels of intensity in their search engine optimization campaigns. They often spend hours carefully crafting their meta tags, page titles, and content while participating in every available linking scheme to boost their ranking, and then leave out a simple, powerful, and effective search engine optimization technique (one that is actually recommended by the major search engines) by not including a site map.

A site map is simply a page within your web site that links to all of the other pages within your web site, used to ensure that all of your content is found and subsequently indexed. You can build this page manually, or use a tool such as Xenu’s Link Sleuth or Google Sitemaps. Be sure that once you’ve uploaded your site map to your web server, you place a link to it from all of your other pages.

When you’ve left a client really happy with your service, do you simply wait around hoping that they offer a testimonial or do you actively seek one? The latter should be the case, and there is an easy, pain free way to ensure that you get it.

Rather than just asking your client to write a testimonial for you, write it for them. Actually, what you want to do is write three versions. The first will be a little over the top, another will not really say much for you, and the last one will be a reasonable and well written testimonial. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they will toss the one that’s over the top and the one that’s not really saying much, leaving you with the middle of the road, more reasonable one.

Since all your client has to do is simply approve what you’ve provided them instead of actually writing their own testimonial, your chances of getting what you need are increased dramatically. Since you are crafting the testimonial to meet your needs, you can word it to help persuade your target market more effectively. In the end, everyone wins.

If you’ve been in business for more than a few minutes, chances are that you’ve either hired or attempted to hire a graphic designer in the past, so you know how difficult it can be. But once you’ve put your project into the hands of a capable designer, the ball is rolling, so it’s important to know how to get the most from your relationship. In order to do that, you’re going to need to have a basic understanding of an industry that is shrouded by myths, misnomers and misconceptions. Once you know what a designer is and isn’t, and how the industry works, you can communicate more effectively with your designer, shorten the timelines and cost of your projects, and make life a lot easier on both you and them.

Graphic designers are professionals

Understand that just like any other member of your staff, graphic designers, whether freelance or employees of a marketing company or advertising firm, are professionals who have taken certain steps to achieve their education and experience. The work that they do can be a valuable asset to your business. Treat them with the same level of respect that you feel you deserve you should be treated.

Software is nothing more than a tool

There is a certain level of technical skill and experience required to design effective marketing materials. It’s not a matter of simply having access to a particular computer program. Most accountants use one of the industry standard computer programs to maintain their client’s finances, but you wouldn’t give your receptionist a copy of Quicken and think that she could effectively handle your corporate taxes. Graphic design is no different. When graphic design software is used by a professional, the results can be astounding, but when used by a novice, the results can be range from mediocre to dismal.

Designers are often asked to “photoshop” a graphic, often to fix some catastrophic problem, such as turning a black and white photo into a color photo. To put the humor of this request into perspective, let’s assume that you run an auto mechanic shop and a client comes in with a major problem with his vehicle…let’s say a cracked engine block. When you inform him that because of the severity of the problem and the amount of work that will go into fixing it, the job will take several days and will cost $3,500, he asks you to simply “matco” it. Graphic design does not have an “easy” button that does the work for us.

Graphic designers are not mind readers

Despite their sometimes eccentric appearance, graphic designers can not read minds, nor can they see in the dark, fly, or cast spells. If you want your project to be completed in a timely manner, it’s imperative to communicate with your designer. If you can’t explain what you want, you can show them other things that have the same feel that you are trying to achieve, such as a magazine, another web site or even the architecture of a particular building ? but don’t ask them to copy something. Not only is it illegal, but it will also present a poor image of you and your company. If you find that you are having a difficult time conveying your vision to your designer, an option may be to proceed in smaller steps so that you can make minor changes along the way rather than having to start over with a design that took the wrong direction entirely.

Both time and ideas are money

Unless you have agreed to compensate your designer on an hourly rate instead of a flat rate, you should never ask them to design something without some sort of direction as to what you want. It’s not any more acceptable to tell your graphic designer “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know when I see it.” than it would be for them to tell you “I don’t know how much this will cost, but I’ll know when I charge you.”

The graphic design industry is unique compared to many other industries in that there is no tangible product when a project is completed. If a customer at the checkout register of your hardware store chooses to leave without purchasing your products, you can simply put them back on the shelf and sell them to a different customer. If a designer finds him or herself in a similar position, they can not take the same course of action because a design produced for one client will rarely be suitable for another client. This is why it’s morally wrong to ask a designer to work on “spec” or to create a design for you in the hopes that you’ll like it enough to actually pay for it. It would be like asking a home builder to build on your land, and if you liked the house, you would pay them for it. No builder in his or her right mind would agree to that, nor would any person in their right mind be comfortable requesting the builder to do it.

Graphic designers have personal lives too

At the end of the day, you go home, but for some reason, people seem to think that it’s perfectly acceptable to drop a project off to a designer at 5:45pm and expect to see it completed by 9:00am the following business day. Your business is normally conducted during a set range of hours and you should expect the same to be true for any graphic design firm. Sure, there will be cases when burning the midnight oil may be necessary ? but that is the exception, not the norm. The more time that a designer is given to complete a project, the better it will usually turn out. Rushing a project inevitably leads to mistakes and an overall lower quality.

Time stands still for no man

Define realistic timelines for your projects. If you tell your designer that you need your project finished yesterday, I can assure you that they will not meet your deadline. Setting a deadline of “immediately” or “ASAP” do not define your needs any better. By setting quantifiable goals, you allow your designer to adjust their existing projects accordingly ? but remember, if they have to put another project on hold to work on yours, you will probably have to pay a “rush” fee. When you make everything a priority, you make nothing a priority, so for the best results, get your project to your designer with plenty of time to spare.

Many reports have been claiming that online retailing has been declining recently. It’s not that online retailing is declining, instead, the opposite is the case. Many of the online retailers are losing market share to the vast number of smaller online retailers, and these losses are skewing the data that supports the theory of a decline.

This is just further evidence that you can start a business and successfully compete with even the largest of industry giants out there, but keep in mind, that’s not a ticket to make ridiculous choices such as trying to start an online book retailing web site or a new search engine. The key is to focus on a particular niche, and as you gain success, expand into additional niches.