Horraah!

Like the NY Times (http://nytimes.com/) we have finally got our hot little hands on the beta version of bit.ly Pro.  This is a basic but nice little Tool for Soup and took us a few tweaks and heart felt emails to get access to it.

The new shortened version of Soup Digital will be soup.ac.nz so keep your eyes peeled (Here is a test url now: soup.ac.nz/c1UZRl).  Sure its not the shortest of shorts but it keeps a shortened version of our trusted brand out there which is important.  More importantly it gives us the greater ability to aggregate and segment our click through reporting data across all of our clients various online products like Facebook, Google Maps, Google My Maps, ZoomIn etc.

For Soup this is the beginning of looking at harnessing various tracking tools out side of the standard Analytics (or lack there of) packages provided by large business listing, social media sites etc.  We aim to create as much transparency for our clients as possible so that we can truly turn the intangible into tangible.

Moving on from this we have some great proprietary performance based tools planned for Soup over the next Year and we will be sure to keep you all informed. Watch this space.

Share information and generate leads!

The changing face of online means that there are any number of ways that you can grow your business, as discussed in some of my blog posts.   However today I would like to talk about another way you can grow your business and its something I suspect many SMEs don’t know about and potentially might not see the immediate benefit in.

What am I talking about?

Well it revolves around sharing your industry/skill specific knowledge with the very people that want to use your services or buy your products.  It’s about generating useful “How To” articles for the public and posting these online.  Obviously you can do this through writing blogs on your own site (something I’ll cover in another post) but many SMEs still don’t have a site (something Soup Digital is trying to change).

It’s also a great opportunity (and time saver) to take advantage of these content aggregation sites that love posting your content.  Generally speaking they will have greater traffic potential, viral elements, search engine optimization and even advertising budget then you might have access to via your own site.

So what is an article and what do I have to do?

An article is an informative piece of writing that is specific to your expertise such as building, cooking, marketing etc which you then  submit to a site such as www.howto.yellow.co.nz (you can check out Soup’s submission here).  This site has been set up to provide useful and straight forward advice/information to the public which revolves around Yellow’s main business channel, SMEs.  The best thing about this though is that they allow you to contribute!  This idea is something that has taken off in the US with the advice content king eHow, where they have a plethora of helpful articles; from making your car more fuel efficient, to finding the best travel deal.

When writing your article don’t go for the hard sell by mentioning your business every second line.  Make it informative with a mention of your business, its hook line and a link to your site (if you don’t have a site then try linking to your google maps page, yellow listing page, finda listing page etc) at the end of the article.

If you have the ability to create a Video that can go with the article then you should most definitely submit this as well.  If the site you’re trying to submit to only allows for Your Tube or Vimeo embedding rather than uploading directly with them.  Then the easiest and best thing to do is set up your own channel on You Tube, upload the video and then use their embedded HTML code as shown below to embed it in your article.  Creating a You Tube channel with your How To’s is also a great way of syndicating your content/advice virally. So remember to always use the video editing software to include your business contact details.

Copy and Paste the YouTube HTML code

Won’t I be cannabalizing my own income by providing advice?

You have to give a little to get a lot back!  Whilst you may save a person from having to call your business to fix a basic plumbing issue this time.  You will be front of mind for more detailed plumbing issues in the future.  So don’t be afraid to share your wealth of knowledge that you have amassed over the years from running your own business.  I’m not saying contribute and give away all your trade secrets or unique selling points. Be strategic in what you write and almost think of it as a “teaser” to people wanting to use your service or by your products.  It’s also a great way of building trust with potential customers.

If you are not comfortable with contributing a full article then at least try commenting on some of the articles already submitted.  This will allow you to at least start contributing to the community and on some sites will even let you link back to your site, as Soup Digital has done on this article.

As small and medium businesses begin to demand greater visibility for their advertising/marketing spend so does the demand for online marketing.  Not only because online marketing offers performance based services where SME’s only pay for results delivered but also the increasing opportunity for “free” marketing products which use the SMEs business content such as; Google Maps, Yellow, Finda, Zenbu, Hotfrog, ZoomIn and even You Tube.

“But online has been around for years”

I hear some of you cynics out there utter these words. I also know that most of you who may be saying this work, like myself, within the realms of digital media in some way shape or form.  Its very easy to get caught up in the next big thing without actually taking a step back to see that the last big thing (which generally speaking SMEs are just getting use to) is actually coming to fruition and delivering tangible results for SMEs.  I’m not suggesting SMEs don’t try and innovate through the latest “free” marketing products, I’m just saying understand what products will generate the greatest return based on the time you put in.  Would I suggest a business creates a Twitter account first? No, they should concentrate on getting there various business listings information across all the sites accurate and optimised.  Then look at Twitter, Facebook, You Tube or ‘the next big thing’.

Online has been around for years, this fact is true but what has not been around for years is the accessibility, depth and ability to market your small to medium business across a wide range of sites. Especially when you can do this at minimal cost, with ever increasing visibility (Google Local Business Centre, coming soon to NZ) and to an audience that continues to evolve its media consumption. With 2.1 million New Zealanders actively online and growing there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way SMEs can be found.

“Print is dead”

A statement that I’m not going to simply jump on the band wagon for the sake of this blog post. Traditional media such as Print can still be an effective part of an SMEs marketing strategy and can provide some performance tracking via unique urls and phone numbers.  Use Soup Digital as an example, some of our target market are people that potentially don’t have any idea about how to use the web effectively let alone understand the basics around Google. So how do I reach these people? Well, traditional media such as Print and Radio (Radio is having a resurgence thanks in some part to online streaming and social media) are essential for Soup as a business to reach this market.

However due to prints historical and what I believe over valued ROI, the reliance on it has definitely begun to shift to it’s more nimble media sibling.  This has occurred more dramatically in the more mature markets of the US and UK but the signs for New Zealand have been there for a while, just check out the figures in this NBR article.

“So why be online and how do I get there?”

This question even in New Zealands market is in itself somewhat outdated as many companies are online but some of the time without them knowing it. I’m always coming across clients that did not realise they had their business  listed across Zenbu, Hotfrog, Finda and Google Maps.  Not because they forgot they had listed their business but because these companies are constantly aquiring new business content (not always legally I might add) to place on their sites and build new products, usage and revenue around.

But even if this is the case, don’t just stop and think to yourself ‘my business is already listed, job done’.  There are other businesses (your competition) really making the most of the plethora of online marketing products out there, some with the help of Soup Digital and some doing it for themselves as business owner’s become increasingly online savvy.  Just check out Groove Kitchens twitter page, a great little cafe in Napier who are making thier first steps into real-time Social media….I just hope they do it right but thats another blog.

All in Moderation.

After all thats been said, the one piece of advice I would say with regards to online, is to allocate you time accordingly.  Don’t spend all your day tweeting, checking analytic results, etc as your time should be focused on converting business leads and bringing in the money.   Becoming almost obsessive compulsive about how your business is tracking online right down to the very minute is a sure fire way to lose all the hard work your online marketing has done.  Remember this is one of the reasons why Soup Digital and companies like it exists, to manage you setup and manage your profile so you have time for your business.

So I guess the question SMEs should be asking is; “My business is online now but how do I make the most of it?”

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