So what are you doing with your marketing plan.  Its the time of year when we all stop to plan what we want to happen next year.  What do you want?  How many leads do you need to get it?  What do you have to do to get those leads?  What do you have to do so you can go ALL IN with your marketing plan in 2010?

Go half way and you’ll get half way results.  If you have a canyon to cross (and we all do) what happens if you only go half way?  You have to go ALL IN.

See you on the other side.

I know you don’t get a VISA number to process their order, but if your content hides behind that form that wants Name, Address, Email, Phone, Website, Company Name, Fax…  is it really free?  No.

You just trade your content for information.  They don’t pay, you don’t “give” them their content.  Not Free.

Here are the new rules to make free truly free:

Be warned, it feels a bit like a free fall.  All your instincts tell you not to do it, but once you step off of the edge, the view is magnificent.  The objection is that there is no data to go into your lead nurturing funnel.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Do this right and you’ll have true;y golden leads waiting for you on the other side!

Before we start, know that your results may vary.  Professional Driver on a closed course, do not try this at home.

Okay? Here we go.

First, your content MUST be top tier.  You have to have something so strong people can’t wait to read it.  The goal is for it to get passed around, reposted, co-opted, forwarded, read and re-read. This multi-layer exposure that happens far outside your control is EXACTLY what has to happen for this strategy to work.

Second, the content  must be available for immediate download at zero cost – meaning not only zero dollar cost, but also zero information cost.  That no cost eliminates anxiety and promotes the referrals , blog links, tweets, retweets, forwards, downloads and traffic you are looking for.

Sprinkled throughout, starting on the cover page,  but especially at the end of the content, strategically place your calls to action.  Create a STUNNING OFFER to make the reader want to go to your website for more.  A click thru link that is a strong and clear anchor text call to action should follow that goes to a specific landing page where you now have earned the right to ask for the data.

You will not get as many form submissions this way as you would if you put your paper behind the form.  I have to ask though, do you want a high body count of names and emails that won’t respond, or do you want to talk to the handful of people that have a true need for your offering?

Do your due diligence to optimize the page, test and improve, and if you have a little luck to go with your skill, you get a viral campaign that generates leads.

You will get less form submissions this way.  The ones you get will be higher quality.  You have taken your process from low friction (simple two question form) to lubricated so it slides all over the web.

Another tip, don’t just let it sit there for free.  Promote it in social media, email, and anywhere else you can think of as a truly FREE instant download.  Get your colleagues to blog about it.  You blog about it.  Ask for retweets.  Encourage downloads – the more the better because the more people will then see your compelling content, your thought leadership, and your expertise.

If you want to know more or see a case study or two, drop me a line.  It’s free. Really.

First, Google doesn’t need any more SEO help: We’re going to be exploring all kinds of creative ways to help build status for your site and help you rank for your keywords on the first page of Google.  The biggest is content. See the post on how to Stand Out in a Crowd.  This applies to any “free” blog site where you are a subdomain of .wordpress.org or .typepad.com  or .live.com from Microsoft.  We’re just focusing on Google here because of some of their especially annoying restrictions.

Second, Don’t give up control: This is your content, your creative work to share or not as you choose.  Do you really want it sitting on a URL that you don’t own and don’t control? What if they decide to change terms, privacy or the price of “free?” What then?  How do you leave without giving up search engine ranking, inbound links and readers?

Third, Don’t give up SEO opportunities: Links from your “free” account to your website are no-follow links – meaning the serach engine credit stays right on the main domain of your blog.  Your work does your site no good.  IF others link to your blog – your site doesn’t benefit from those links either and that is one of the primary factors in Google’ search algorithm.

Fourth, You’ll suffer from domain chains: If you want to move a website from one place to another and keep all your “link juice” and SEO credit, you use a “301 permanent redirect”.  This is nothing more than forwarding your mail when you move physically.  Your traffic follows you automatically.  But guess what:  Google does not let you do a 301 redirect to anywhere else if you’re using blogspot.com as your domain! This is a beyond horrible.  Google is holding you hostage to their site. Why?  They want/need the data you and your visitors give up every day.  I love Google and their tools, just not on this one.

Fifth, you could be tarnishing your brand:  If you’re a professional, be a professional.  Being frugal is good as a business owner – being cheap is another matter. Thinking strategically to create your brand on the net involves promoting that brand in the best light whenever possible.  Blog.mybrand.com does that. My “just another free blog” says you’re not really serious about what you have to say.

Sixth, you could end up advertising for your competition: What happens when the “free” site decides that the free version comes with mandatory ads that are context sensitive (like Google Adwords)?  Now your competitors are on your blog! You either take it or move.  We’ve already discussed the disaster of moving.

Seventh, Their changes are yours by default: When Blogspot changes it’s look – so do you.  When you host your own blog, you can make it fit your theme and keep that consistent image of the rest of your marketing materials.  On a free site, you are at the mercy of their webmaster who is acting in their best interest, not yours.

Eighth, You have limited tools: Especially on Blogspot.  WordPress is somewhat better but best is to download the WordPress or other software and create the robust blog you deserve.  Don’t be stuck with limited templates, colors and widgets (or lack thereof) or be forced to use their tools.

Ninth, Downloading the content is a problem: Widgets can be and often are locked.  Content can be held captive – forcing you to copy and retype by hand or just lose it all together.  At the end of the day, the amazingly small cost to put the blog on your own domain (hosting your own content is less than the cost of one business lunch per month) – more than pays for itself in knowing that your content is your content to present, change and promote however you wish.

Finally, There is no such thing as a free lunch:  Even though Blogspot is free – it’s not really free.  The value of your time is much more important.  The value of your links is more important.  The value of your content is more important.  If you’re planning to use your business blog tol help you find better clients and grow your business, find a professional blogging platform that is designed for your needs, not the general population.  One of my marketing partners, HubSpot has a strong easy to use offering (it’s a piece of the software platform I put my clients on). Or, if you are willing to work harder, building a parallel site like this one that helps market your main site is a great tactic.  I’m using WordPress to do this.

If you’re on BlogSpot.com and would like to explore the options we’ve talked about here, drop me a note.  I’ll give you some more free tips – even if that’s all you need.

Get found on the internet

Have you ever noticed that the internet is getting crowded?  Run almost any search and get hundreds of thousands if not millions of matches in Google.  Here are some amazing stats:

1. There are over 1,000,000,000,000 unique URLs in Google’s index.  That’s ONE TRILLION folks! (source)
2. There are over 133,000,000 Blogs indexed by technorati. (source)
3. At the time I’m writing, somewhere over 2,688,656,000 tweets on twitter since it started and that will rise at a rate of 300 per second! (source) Yep, I timed it.
4. There are over 250 MILLION Facebook users and 120,000,000 of them log on at least once each day. (source)

And here we are, the inbound marketing crowd telling you that you can get found on the web and have your customers come to you!  Yeah Right. (was that a “Bah! Humbug!” I heard in the background?)

So how do you rise out of the trillions of users on the trillion sites to be found?  Reality check: You don’t want or have to get found by everyone.  You just need to reach the folks who have a need for your offering.

The key to it all is CONTENT! Before we talk about search engine optimization (SEO), before we talk about pay per click (PPC), or banner ads, or display ads, or even affiliate advertising, realize that CONTENT IS KING.  Compelling Content.  Here are 6 tips for creating compelling content.

1. Use varied fonts, sizes, italics, and colors within your site.  Be dramatic in your presentation and layout of your content.
2. Use fresh, streamlined words as you write.  Play with language!  Use words in surprising ways if you can without distorting the meaning.  Keep it fresh with frequent updates and additions to your site.
3. Have a point and get to it.  Especially in your blog.  When we do talk about SEO, we’ll discuss the importance of each page covering only one topic.
4. Work on the architecture of your site.  Build a site that encourages people to check out one more page.  Yes you write for search engines, but write for people too.
5. Use a variety of media – video, audio, pictures (with alt tags of course) to enhance your words.
6. Write for your audience – know your target audience and talk to them about what is important in their world not yours.

Most importantly – just do it.  The web is a fluid medium.  I’m reminding myself that adding content is really more important that adding perfect content!  You can always revise later.  Just Do It!

TV.  We had three channels in my market (2,5,& 11).  If the weather was just right we could get a couple of more but it didn’t matter because they were the same networks as 2, 5, & 11.  Change the channel?  Get up and walk across the room and “clunk, clunk, clunk” turn the dial.  We were a captive audience for P&G, Coca Cola, Kellogs, and Pilsbury.   No point in changing the channels because there was a different commercial on the other channel at the same time.  Mass Media was in it’s heyday.

The Sunday paper was THE news source, besides the 6:00 news on 2, 5, & 11.

Then a guy named Ted Turner and a few others created a brand new world of cable TV.  Now you had 111 channels, news all the time and a technological break though – THE REMOTE!  Commercial comes on – you have 110 options to get away from it, all from the comfort of your recliner.  Mass media suddenly got a terminal illness.

Next disease, this little box called TIVO.  Now no one watches the commercials except Super Bowl fans and marketing geeks. So how to reach an audience?

Phone?  Nope – caller I.D and a national DO NOT CALL list and voice mail means that is a marketing fail!

Newspaper? Nope – we get our news from our Blackberries, internet, and cable (TIVO style)

Direct Mail? Nope  – it usually lands in the recycle bin.

Email? SPAM filter

Yellow pages? Really?  My friend @RonArden said it best on twitter yesterday “The new yellow pages are here!  I needed a new prop for my broken chair leg.”

The problem with all of these tactics is that they interrupt your potential client’s day.  That makes YOU an interruption, NOT a solution.  What a huge marketing fail that is!

The solution? INBOUND MARKETING!  Inbound marketing can be summed up in three simple phrases:

GET FOUND

CONVERT

ANALYZE & REPEAT

How elegantly simple.  And profound.  People are out there who need what you are selling – that’s why you’re still in business.  Inbound puts you and your potential customer together – painlessly for the customer and at a lower cost than you can possibly imagine.

Over the next several posts, we’ll unpack those three phrases and start to transform your marketing plan and your business.