To do that, your business’ message must find a way to stand out to the general public, no easy task today considering the prodigious proliferation of websites, all with messages clamoring to be seen and heard.

The following list, which is by no means exhaustive, includes some basics for getting your business seen and heard above the noise of the web’s vox populi:

1. Keep your web site fresh with new text and images
2. Use a blog to talk about the issues addressed by your business and the solutions it offers
3. Where possible post updated press releases or news bulletins to showcase your products and/or services
4. Post customer testimonials as often as possible
5. Give your site a chance to be seen by deploying best practices for Search Engine Optimization
6. Use Social Media networking to get more eyeballs on your business and your site
7. Make sure you have selected the right keywords that apply to your business and include them for your site
8. Keep abreast of what your competitors are doing online, so you can counter with strengths that you know are differentiators for your business
9. Make a commitment to maintaining your online marketing strategy through innovation, keeping up with the latest software, techniques, and best practices for online marketing
10. Frequently review results of grading your website with available evaluation tools

Again, these are but a few best practices for achieving a successful online marketing strategy and getting your message in front of the masses.  But if you commit to and perform these ten, you will have positioned yourself for success.  The rest is up to you and as always how well you perform for your customers.

This strategy is known as affinity marketing.  There are numerous ways you can manage an affinity marketing program, there are even companies that will manage one for you, but the key is to publicize the fact that you are doing it.  There are many ways to reach constituents of these organizations and in most cases the organization itself will inform their supporters through their established channels of communication.

Just think about the huge number of people in your community that are affiliated with organizations of this nature:  There are parents of school children (schools always need more money, as they are some of the first to feel the effects of a recession); churches with large memberships; humane societies, environmental groups, Rotary clubs, community based health causes, and volunteer organizations.
In short any organization with a membership or close constituency of supporters is an ideal group of potential customers for your business.

As for managing your affinity marketing program, you can easily find companies that provide these services.  Here is a short list of well-established companies that can help you manage your program:

Nietech Corporation
Help Worldwide, Inc.
Vesdia Corporation
Augeo

You can expand your options by searching Google for “Loyalty Transaction Processing”, “affinity marketing”, or “Loyalty Systems”.

The Internet is plastered with new terminology, newly coined business names, and new products and services, many relating to the Internet itself.  But with so many messages clamoring for our attention, it’s easy to become influenced by flashy ads or cleverly concocted phrases some of which we may wish to adopt a version of as our own.  With this as well we may forget the importance of adhering to only the highest ethical standards for our own conduct online.

Aware of it or not, truth telling or stretching in advertising will make or break a business sooner or later, especially now with an ability to attract and affect so many people through our websites, emails, social media marketing and the like.  Today, because of the impact we can have using the tools of the web, practices and behaviors in accord with only the highest ethical standards are more critical than ever to the success and longevity of a business.  In a very real sense we do eventually “reap what we sow.”

Hence, we need to withstand the temptation to exaggerate claims for our products or services in the interests of merely attracting more potential customers, a practice that in the longer term will most likely accrue to the detriment of our business as the truth of our claims is revealed.

It can be helpful to recognize the various disguises worn by certain less than ethical practices.  Sometimes it’s a rationalized decision where the end justifies the means, perhaps involving a little truth stretching or a convenient omission of certain details, or seemingly small and harmless exaggerations.  Either way as these practices are exposed sooner or later the effect on business will almost always be negative or even catastrophic.

As business owners and as merely members of the human race, each of us has the responsibility to temper enthusiasm with reality, exhibit honesty in our representations and uphold and protect the integrity of business conducted on the Internet.  A business built upon the highest ethical standards will be seen by the masses as a beacon unto itself, if only for the reputation it has earned and enjoys.  And quite frankly, there’s no way to buy that kind of advertising.

Last time we talked about Loyalty Marketing and how it can turn your marketing dollars into a profit center versus an expense against sales.

This time you’ll see how you can market your business in collaboration with other non-competitive businesses right within your community and using none of your own money.

A small start-up company in south Texas came up with an idea of publishing a simple online and print version of a new Directory for complementary businesses within its community.  Keep in mind any existing business can fill the publisher role.  The idea is to boost sales for each business in the Directory through collaborative (shared cost) marketing, while the publisher profits directly from the advertising subscriptions of each participating business.

This is really cool!  It effectively leverages marketing dollars for the Directory participants while making money for the publisher with up front out-of-pocket costs born by the subscribers.  It’s another wrinkle on OPM “other people’s money” or in this case “other businesses’ money.”  To make the Directory even more attractive a business can elect to pay monthly or take a discount for paying annually.  (If you’re going to allow monthly payments I recommend collections via ACH – it’s the cheapest method – or use PayPal).  The nice thing about collecting monthly is it creates a sort of residual income for the publisher.

You incent consumers to buy the Directory with a modest price point, (say around $20.00), which includes a value-savings card, good for discounts determined by each participating business.  The Directory with the card is sold and distributed to customers at each participating business location.  Additionally, the Directory may be sold through the publisher’s website.  It’s a great way to make money.

If you’re looking for more ways to increase profitability, this marketing model can be used by any existing business, or it can stand alone nicely as a completely new business venture.

Now this may come as a surprise to many of you, but your marketing dollars should be a profit center with measurable results to the bottom line, and not a cost of doing business.

“But” you say, “I have to pay for marketing and advertising materials.  How is this not an expense against sales?”

OK, let me give you an example.  Let’s say you want to start a loyalty program that will accomplish two things: 1. You want to retain the customers you now have, thereby getting more of their money, and 2. You want to attract new customers.

To achieve these two goals let’s say you decide to issue a loyalty card to your customers with the idea that they will come back again in order to take advantage of some special offer(s) only available to repeat customers as they present their cards with new purchases.  Obviously, you are going to have to pay for the cards, and probably some advertising materials about your program.

Your first instinct is to give away as many cards to your customers as you can as they come to you for business.  But this is exactly what you should not do.  This approach only guarantees you a cost rather than generating a profit with the same dollars.

To turn your “costs” for setting up this program into “profits,” instead of giving a free card to your customers you should charge them something for it.  This will do two things: 1. By selling the cards (for some reasonable amount) say $5 or $10 each, you will have more than paid for the cost of the cards and accompanying advertising piece explaining the program, but you will also have planted in the minds of your customers that they are receiving something of “value”.  Anything acquired for free is perceived as having no value.  So by selling the cards, which when presented during future purchases provide some additional benefit such as a substantial discount, or other premium not available to all customers, you have made a profit on the distribution of the cards, AND you have given your customers an incentive to “come back” to your business as repeat customers.

Voila! With loyalty marketing, though less measurable in terms of how many new customers you have attracted, you have turned your marketing dollars into a profit center.   It’s human nature to be attracted to good deals, and most people are on the lookout for them.  You can at least be assured that loyalty marketing will over time attract some new customers to your business, even if only by word of mouth.

In our next nugget we’ll share another idea on how to create more profits with your marketing dollars.