10 Creative Tactics to Help your Business Stand Out Online

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1. Make a list of search terms you think consumers may be using to find you online and figure out where you rank. Next, look at the things companies are doing to market themselves to get there and where their sites link to and from. Once you know that, you can begin to be part of the discussion. Subscribe to relevant RSS feeds and read blogs that come up under your search terms. You could be a skincare company targeting dermatologists and find out moms are blogging about how to prevent wrinkles and keep skin hydrated and offering their own product reviews online or a cell phone manufacturer that has had some positive or negative reviews on a new Web site. Partner with like sites that complement your services and post each other’s links.

2. Videos can be a viral animal. Done cleverly, the most viral videos are attention-grabbing–hilarious, inspiring or shocking. Two great examples are Dove “Evolution” or BlendTech “Will it Blend.” You can also focus on a niche. For example, Dupont wanted to target a younger more tech savvy demographic through viral campaigns. They identified just 8 key blogs and created an online video series called “Dupont Science Stories” containing well-thought out and interesting content. They then negotiated with selected key blogs for advertising space and posted the videos to those sites as well as YouTube, Google Video and Blip.tv. Within the first few weeks they had 50, 000 viewers and almost 2,000 hits to the YouTube posting.

3. Syndicate your content with an RSS feed so that customers can receive a constant flow of information.

4. Measure your online PR and marketing strategies with Google analytics or Clicktracks, capture the contact details of your audience with landing page that asks for name and email address before they access the information they want.

5. Use sites like stumbleupon.com and del.icio.us.com which allows members of the community to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on sites submitted. The more approval votes a site receives, the more it is forwarded to other members of the community who have expressed interest in that type of content.

6. Record presentations at tradeshows and events and use them for Podcasts. Podcasts can be made with Garageband software on Macs or with digital recorders (about $100) and free MP3 editing software. Host the podcast behind a registration page and pass the registration info on to sales teams. i.e. if you are a tax specialist, offer a tax seminar on the SBA’s website or a hyperlink to your site where prospects can download.

7. Reach audiences through search news sites by issuing press releases online.
According to Nielsen/NetRatings, in June 2004, 21 million people visited Yahoo News and just one year after launch, Google News now exceeds 6.5 million visitors in an average month.

8. Use WordTracker and Overture to indicate key search terms for your business and include those search terms in your press releases and web content. Include hotlinks in the first paragraph rather than your general URL so that you can track where leads are coming from.

9. Establish relationships with key bloggers that cover your subject matter, they love new information and have unlimited space in most cases!

10. Post entries on Wikipedia to position yourself as a subject matter authority.

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