You know, sometimes you can learn great business lessons while sitting in the most unlikely of places… church!

Curious? Of course you are. Read on.

Recently, my pastor was giving a sermon on how churches need to change their methods - not their message. In other words, they should convey the same morals and principles that have been around for thousands of years, but avoid using ancient approaches to reach today’s ever-changing society. And you can probably point out a number of churches that do this very well. Most now have websites where they provide information about the church, post announcements and upload audio files of their sermons for download. Many have blogs and podcasts, email newsletters, you name it.

My point? We can learn something from this!

Are you keeping up with your target market? Is it time to change your methods? Really consider this. I hear so many say “we’re entering a new technology age,” but the truth is – we’ve already entered this new age… and the door has slammed swiftly behind us!

Take me, for example. I’m not only computer literate… but actually quite computer dependent. I saw a truck on the Northway this morning, and it had a 1-800 number on the back. I thought to myself, “I will have to Google that number when I get to work.” Then I paused for a moment and had to laugh. The only use I have for a phone number is to Google it?! Are you keeping up with people like me? What happens when your business’s phone number is Googled?

In this day and age, people expect to find information about your business online. Think of your website as a sort of online brochure – an opportunity to really showcase what you have and seal the deal. What if someone asks for your “brochure” and Google tells them you don’t have one… so instead offers brochures from 2 of your top competitors?! What an opportunity you are missing out on if you don’t have Web presence.

Learn more about keeping up with your competition online.

So having a website is a given. What else is there?

Only you know your target market, and if it is a true niche, you will have to find the best ways to relate to them. But if you want my honest opinion, every business should have a website that is optimized for the search engines (even if it’s DIY SEO), advertise monthly or seasonal specials online and get listed in local guides — at minimum.

Other avenues to pursue would be maintaining an online blog, adding valuable content to your site, writing ezine articles, adding videos, sending announcements and specials through monthly email newsletter campaigns, creating a YouTube channel, participating in social media sites, adding a press or media section to your site for your press releases, grabbing attention through display advertising, getting increased visibility with Google PPC advertising, and the list goes on. Consider the way you look for and act on information, and try to use that as your guiding force to help you adapt your methods to your target audience.

“But my target market is old fashioned…”

Truth be told, not everyone is computer / Internet savvy, but a large part of the market already consists of Internet gurus — and many computer junkies (like me) — that means in a few short years everyone will be. Will you be ready? Are you ready now?

No matter if you are a religious person or not, take some great advice from my pastor, and change your methods of presenting your age-old message to keep up with your target audience!

Want some more in-depth advice on this? Feel free to give us a call here at Mannix Marketing (888) 395-9035*, and we’ll be happy to go over a personalized Internet marketing plan with you.

*Or go ahead and Google our phone number!

Well, not really dummies…after all, if you’ve gotten this far, you’re well on your way to making some informed decisions about your website, your business and how you’re going to approach your future online! It is true that good copywriting can make the difference between a website that succeeds or fails. Excellent copywriting and skilled optimization is what puts your website over and above the rest.

In many ways copywriting for the internet, specifically your website, isn’t all that different from other writing with a few notable exceptions. You may have the coolest widget out there, but if you don’t introduce it until halfway through your homepage – or paragraph – your visitors are gonna move on!

The basics for good writing still apply for your website, but there are a few notable exceptions:

* Get to the point:  People are busy. If and when they are looking for something specific online, they don’t have the time or patience to wade through a lot of extraneous text. Learn how to build value and create a sense of urgency right up front, and tell the reader what sets you apart. Establishing an emotional connection with your online audience is also a mega plus.
* Global Grammar: There are some things that simply aren’t negotiable when it comes to copywriting, and that includes the most basic rules: Don’t start a sentence with “I” or “And”. Avoid run-on sentences. Check your spelling and avoid lengthy paragraphs!
*  Looks are everything: Visitors to the internet are used to scanning a page quickly to determine if it’s what they are looking for. Give them what they want, using clear subheadings and titles, an easy-to-read font, creative bolding within the text (sparingly, please) and links that are visible and stand out clearly just begging them to click!
* Say Yes to SEO:  Keywords, anchor text, and more keywords! Learn what they are and how to use them. Carelessly stuffing keywords throughout your text, however, will only anger the search engine gods, so learn how to optimize in a professional manner. Need help? Contact a good SEO firm and explain your website goals!
* Lights, Camera, Action! Any good salesman knows that you’ve got to ask for the business! Strong calls to action on every page of your website are what make people move forward, so don’t mask them in too much verbiage! Make sure to be simple, clear and direct, with a phone number or link where they can reach you.

Whether you are just starting out with a brand new website or are on your way to becoming an experienced internet marketer, the value of online article submissions can’t be overemphasized. Internet articles can be a significant tool in improving your rankings within the major search engines. They can also work to increase traffic to your website from people within your industry as well as from potential clients and customers numbers.

Quality Copywriting and Search Engine Optimization are important components for the success of any online company. When you write an article with your URL included and submit it to an e-zine site, it automatically creates an incoming link to your URL. One of the ways the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN rank a website is based upon how many links point to it, so the more articles you submit, the more quality incoming links you show.

Including a link to your site within your article will also generate traffic from searches about your topic, industry, or product. By submitting a well written, informative article to online publication sites, you are promoting your business in the worldwide marketplace, and create a permanent advertisement for your business – for free!

There are hundreds of online article sites to choose from! Before you submit, check the site for credibility. Does it have a healthy page rank? Does is appear to be a legitimate site, or is it covered in spammy-looking text or ads that urge you to click on them? Scan the articles submitted by the authors in your topic range and review the quality of what you see. Most good online article sites have a specific set of guidelines to prevent the site from becoming too commercial, often limiting links within the article to one or two.
The last word….

It’s always a good idea to add a copyright and a reprint rights statement to your article. The internet is a big place, and there are always people who don’t mind “borrowing” (aka pirating) good writing! If you want it to be shared, but still keep your credits intact, adding a statement similar to this to the bottom of your article can help:

© 2008, John Doe. This article may be freely published on any website, as long as the author, copyright, website address and link, and this notice are left intact.

Visitors  on the internet often come looking for something specific. Well written articles with a strong and compelling title, keywords and interesting and relevant content can become highly popular in their own right. Give it a try!

I just read an article on the Google Blog talking about how it (and other search engines) hasn’t even touched upon it’s true capabilities, and how in the next ten years our lives will change exponentially based upon the new things discovered within the world of search. That’s great news! The article also talks about the revelation of social media and how the goal is to have search become more personal. What does this really mean? While this is great news for the average searcher – one can’t help but think, what about my privacy?

Between the Facebooks, MySpaces, LinkedIns and Twitters of the blogspheres – there is an outlet for everyone, both personally and professionally. Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to not get swept away with all that is out there. I catch myself saying to myself, What applications are legit, what really works, and what’s worth my time. At some point, with the advent of all these online journals, couldn’t this act of airing our laundry (clean or dirty) potentially be a disadvantage?

If these social media outlets are used inappropriately, you’re career could be on the line if you post compromising pictures, articles or blogs without realizing that others have full access to your personal space. Is the web a place to find information and to connect with like-thinkers, or does it offer innocent people a false sense of security?

With the pure sophistication of Google Images and search engines as a whole, our lives really may be an open book. It is truly exciting about the future of search – with the goal of becoming more mobile, visual and even personal! Knowledge really is at your fingers – use it to your advantage!

As I stated in a previous blog on newsletters, I tend to receive and read more than the average person. And as I look in my email folder for newsletters, the subject lines sometimes read like a countdown to liftoff: “Organic SEO Top 10 Myths”, “Top Six Internal Linking Tactics To Get Top Google Rankings” or “3 Simple Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business Explained”…you get the point.

With so many lists of tips and tricks coming at you, how do you decide which ideas to keep in the forefront, and which ones to keep on file? Do you gather all the #1 tips and have at it? Stick with just Top 3 lists because they seem manageable?

Well, there are probably a number of ways to effectively tackle them, but here’s the thought process that works for me: Reliability –> Relevance –> Actionability

What I do first relates back to my blog on SEO Tools. I take the lists with a ‘grain of salt’ and see which advice, tips and tools would truly be something that would benefit a website, and which ones would benefit a website or business I am working with (overtime I have come to subscribe to newsletters that deal with topics that relate more towards the businesses I work with, which helps).

From there, I find the ones that I actually CAN act on (no sense in putting online catalog advice into action if there isn’t a catalog on the website, right?), and then find the ones that I WILL actually act on. As you know, if you add up all the tips you would probably be in the thousands within a few days. As much as I’d like to be able to do everything, I know I have limitations. To that end, finding tips that will work for a site and are things that can be implemented for a site are the key to success.

Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t keep the tips I don’t act upon in mind, or that I don’t save newsletters to browse through again to find something that may be relevant today that wasn’t yesterday. I do (I’m a packrat like that). As websites and businesses evolve, advice that may not have been relevant 6 months ago may be what I need today.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to always be doing what’s right for the website and the site visitors. By keeping that in mind you’ll be able to figure out which tips will help your site launch.