My company provides internet marketing services for small-medium business, and when I meet a new client, I often find myself selling the value of the web itself as much as I sell the value of my company. The fact is that the internet, despite being more than 10 years old and representing hundreds of billions in revenue for millions of companies, is still “new” in the minds of many business owners. There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding online marketing, even if it’s just creating a simple website.

Of course, I’ve never had a problem convincing a business owner to market online. The technology is just too powerful. With search engine marketing and optimization, we can target potential consumers at critical stages of the buying cycle. With social marketing, we can build an audience and establish a business as an authoritative resource. With email marketing, we can take advantage of a businesses’ greatest resource - previous customers - and attain significant and immediate results.

I’ve attained a nice long list of reasons to market online during the last couple of years, but I’m always looking for more. A conversation I’ve had with a couple of business owners lately has given me another:

Reason to Market Online #374: Win More Contract Bids.

It didn’t even occur to me until I spoke to a couple of contractors, both of whom wanted to get a website up and running because they felt it would increase their chances of winning contract bids. Evidently, when contractors bid for a job, the bid review process entails more than just finding the lowest bidder. The bidder is often asked to provide references, examples of previous work, safety information, regulatory compliance, and more. What medium could provide this information better than a website?

Is someone looking for an example of a concrete foundation you’ve poured? Let’s post pictures and a copy of an inspection report. Does someone want to know what clients you’ve worked for? Let’s post a list with company general contact info. What about your safety record? Let’s create a page for your website that talks about all your safety procedures and your overall record. Is a client concerned about your compliance with laws and regulations? Let’s make sure they can find all the important disclosures on your site, and let’s also list off all of your company’s associations and accreditation’s.

The fact is, the internet provides instant and immediate access to a variety of information. By creating a useful and informative business website, you’ll increase the chances that potential customers will value your company or service higher than all the rest…and you just might win a few contract bids.

Please be sure to visit SporkMarketing.com or Resource Nation’s online marketing business center to learn more about their internet marketing services.

Recent reports show magazine revenue steadily decreasing. In fact, according to the United States Publishers Information Bureau (PIB), total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue through the first three quarters of 2008 posted a 5% decline against the previous year. Additionally, there was a 9.5% drop during the first three quarters of 2008 in advertising pages, compared to the same period in 2007. Specifically, for the third quarter of 2008, total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue decrease 8.8% compared to 2007’s third quarter. In addition, there was a 12.9% drop in advertising pages compared to the third quarter of 2007.

The magazine industry argues that magazine advertising has been negatively impacted by the ongoing economic woes, similarly to several other industries. Ellen Oppenheim, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Magazine Publishers of America stated “We’re seeing the unfortunate result of the ongoing softness in the economy. . .Consumers have cut spending and advertisers have followed suit.  It’s affected every ad category and every ad-supported sector of the media industry.”

A closer examination of magazine revenues evidences that while overall magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue, publishing, and advertising page count declined, some advertising categories posted gains. For example, retail, food and food products, and public transportation, hotels, and resorts are three advertising categories that showed increased revenue. Overall, though, magazine revenue is unfortunately steadily declining.

So, how can the magazine industry and other industries remain alive and increase revenue?

By finding other ways to produce revenue online. Banner ads, revenue share affiliate programs, and lead generation are just three examples to help drive down the total cost of acquisition per customer and increase revenue.

See Resource Nation’s online marketing business service center to connect with companies to help you with your marketing needs.

Banner Ads, also referred to as web banners, banner ads are beneficial because they can be customized with multiple images, animation, and changing colors.

Revenue Share Affiliate Programs are another way magazines and online businesses are increasing revenue. Affiliate programs allow businesses to earn a share of the profits each time the magazine refers a customer to the business. If the business provides a service that is an added-value to the magazine’s online readers, the size of the profit share can be significant. Amazon.com has been successful in its affiliate program. Our program has also been successful for partners like Entrepreneur.com and StartUpNation.

Lead Generation is also becoming more and more popular. Essentially, a lead is someone who either signs-up for a product or service or signs up to receive more information about a product or service. Magazines and companies are implementing these tactics to connect with prospective customers.  Examples of lead generation marketing include online lead generation, direct mail, telemarketing, and email marketing.

The online advertising industry is a billion-pound industry with hundreds of millions spent on online acquisition campaigns alone. From Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising on search engines like Google and Yahoo!, to banner ads, email campaigns, organic search, blogging and web PR, magazines and other businesses are making an investment to find additional revenue.

A free-giveaway is a vital first step in marketing your business and building a list of prospects that you can turn into customers and clients.

Once you create your free-giveaway, you don’t need to touch it again.  Remember, there will always be new people who “discover” you - new people you’ll be getting into your marketing funnel, pipeline or pyramid (however you think of it).

Your free-giveaway is aimed at this constant stream of new prospects and is the vehicle you use to build the marketing relationship with them, build credibility, earn their like and trust and convert them into loyal clients and customers.

So your free-giveaway will always exist as a stand-alone and entry point into your marketing system for the majority of your list.  This doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t build on the work you’ve done with your free-giveaway and leverage its power.

Another word for this is re-purposing your work.  That’s what smart marketers and business people do:  take the time and money you’ve invested in something and re-purpose it to use in conjunction with, or as another marketing tactic or product and service.

For example, with your free-giveaway you can take out pieces of it and write articles around it, blog posts and ezine content.  In this way, you spend the time once on creating your free-giveaway but you take parts of the content and re-purpose (or recycle) it to use in other marketing strategies that you employ.

Smart marketers, like yourself, know that the power of leveraging new marketing tactics with existing strategies is the way to get the most out of your time, expertise and resources.

Schedule a few minutes today to see if you are utilizing the power of your free-giveaway to the fullest.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has recently announced that it plans to release its codification of accounting standards in July of 2009.  The codification does not change Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), rather it re-organizes, codifies, and simplifies the existing structure of guidance which had become a labyrinth of convoluted accounting literature.  The new codification will be based on a topical format rather than the existing format that is organized by standards.  So, how does this affect our San Diego accounting firm, other San Diego accountants, CPAs, and others within the industry?  And is this a change for the better?

To begin, once released, the codification will supersede all existing guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, emerging issues task forces, and other related sources.  So, say goodbye to every acronym that once went by FASB, FIN, EITF, SOP, ARB, SAB, etc, etc, etc…  All of this literature will now be considered non-authoritative.  This puts all of those in the accounting environment on a level playing field in terms of locating certain accounting related literature and guidance, as we all must now familiarize ourselves with the changes so that we are ready for the transition.

Next, as opposed to the current format, the new codification will be topical in format, reorganizing U.S. GAAP into about 90 accounting topics.  This will greatly simplify the research process.  As opposed to running the risk of being unaware of existing guidance, the researcher can now take comfort that all information on the related topic is organized together, thus reducing the risk of noncompliance with standards and reducing time and effort in research.

Once released on July 1, the codification will become the single official source of nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, superseding existing literature from FASB, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, emerging issues task forces and related sources.   After that date, all other literature will be considered non-authoritative.

The current codification changes are a step towards simplifying and organizing GAAP as it has become today.  In addition, it is a switch toward the more topical approach, which is consistent to the eventual plan of converting to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).  Most of the younger generation accounting and financial personnel will applaud the change as overdue.  Some seasoned veterans of the profession may grumble about having to find where everything is again.  Overall, this is a positive step for the FASB and will assist in easing the transition into IFRS.

This is our third and last installment in this DIY Series on Developing your Brand.  This three-step approach will help you define your brand if you have limited resources to consult the outside expertise of a brand strategist.  In the first posting we talked about where to start.  How do you begin to define a brand and where you find the definition for your brand?  In the second posting we looked at how an analysis of your competition can help you develop a clearer message around who you are and how you are different.  In this final step we’ll look at how benchmarking can help you discover an edge or an approach that reflects what you offer authentically and differentiated from everyone else in your industry.

If you need help with branding for your company, visit Resource Nation’s marketing experts.

A benchmark is a standard by which something is judged.  In this last phase you’ll learn more about your brand by benchmarking brands outside your industry.  Here we begin to look to standards that are upheld by other brands that you admire to see what you can learn from them.  Whether a tennis racket manufacturer, clothing designer, a soap company or a car company, these brands can teach you something.

The process will require you to look at their websites, note the language they use to speak to customers, figure out what you like about how they present themselves to you and take note.  Similar to what you did in the competitive review make note of three key elements: content, visual language and the emotion.

Content:
Read what your favorite brand says about their product on their website and/or in their brochures.  Hear what they have to say on TV or in radio ads.  Note their language.  Is their message focused on their customer “we meet your needs” or on their product “we have the highest quality…”.  Understanding the content of their message will give you clues to how you may approach your brand.  If your favourite brands, outside your line of work, focus on customers then perhaps the way you communicate your message should do the same.

Visual Language:
Take note of how your favorite brands present themselves visually.  Are TV commercials fast-paced with dark and metallic colors?  Are print ads on bright white backgrounds with bold text?  Are websites filled with movement and color?  Take a look at two or three of your favorite brands from different industries, like a food company, a sports equipment company and a chocolate company.  What is similar about their visual language?  Note these similarities; it may inform how you want to present your brand to the world.  If the visual language is very different for each then note what parts of it you like the most.  Perhaps you like the vivid colors in one and the wide open space in another.  Then, ask yourself why do I like these visual cues in this context?  A pattern will certainly emerge.

Emotion:
Noting emotion is really about how you feel, not what you think they want you to feel but how you really feel.  This is where authenticity rings true.  As you engage with your favorite brands think about how you feel.  Do you feel trust, power, speed, confidence, luxury, serenity, or energized?  What kind of feeling is the brand eliciting in you?  Take a moment to note which of those feelings you want for your customers.  A respected market researcher, Frank Luntz said “80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect” – focus on the emotion it is what drives us.

Often when the vision for an organization is being held by more than one person, a team or a committee it is difficult to get agreement on where to go.  When I was hired to head up the brand revitalization effort for a large office furniture manufacturer, based in the US Northeast, I used this benchmarking strategy to coach the management team through a visioning session that would help to define precisely what they wanted for their brand.  This company manufactured office furniture that appealed to the broadest customer base.  It was not elite high-end furniture but it did offer a design and functionality that was loved by a majority of the marketplace.  The problem was that the marketplace felt this brand was getting stale.  In order to help the management team create a vision for the brand they could believe in we looked for a company outside of our industry that also appealed to the masses and offered nice design but had a brand that customers were drawn to.  We chose Kenneth Cole, a brand that was known by the management team and admired by all.  Kenneth Cole provides the latest designs to a majority of the marketplace and they’re appealing to the market.  Just what we wanted to accomplish for our brand.  We benchmarked their approach, language, even stores to get inspiration for what we could do with our brand.  Having a benchmark in mind kept our entire brand revitalization team focused on a singular vision.  In the end we accomplished the mission.  In the years following the brand revitalization the manufacturer experienced growth that exceeded expectations and developed a loyal following of customers who are in anticipation of future product launches.

We’ve all heard for years that online marketing is the most affordable, measurable form of getting access to targeted customers.  So that means that every small or medium sized business owner has been spending online for years, right?  Wrong, but that trend is rapidly changing.

A few years ago all that mattered was having a web presence, which meant simply building a static website with some sweet animated GIFs.  Then, the early adopters, the tech savvy or friends of the tech savvy, started doing ppc and possibly seo.  The numbers making the jump were few, but the success was great.  The doorway has opened a bit wider now.  Small business internet marketing providers now have technology specifically made for managing and optimizing smaller spends.  Previously, these types of optimization tools were only available for companies capable of shelling out thousands per month.  Many SMBs still thriving during the current economy attribute their success to search marketing performance.

Do it yourself options also exist, but there is a level of expertise required to achieve optimal success.  It’s also important to consider that as the industry has grown lower priced solutions have popped up allowing business owners to focus on what they do best.  A lot of us own many hats, but in the end we tend to stick to the one that fits best.

When approaching the media, you’d better be darned sure your story is interesting. Got a new product to announce? Just signed a new client? Opening store? If so, that’s great. But it’s useless in the eyes of the media unless you have something that makes it unique. So what makes a good story? How can you turn your announcement into a fascinating topic of interest to the media. Here are a few must-do’s:

• Focus - Your story should be about one specific topic. Being too broad makes the story vague and uninteresting. Don’t add a bunch of mumbo-jumbo just because you want to fill a page of paper, keep your story focused on one topic. Any filler information should only serve to support your main idea.

• Drama- Your story needs to have something that is dramatic, unique, different… If you’re opening a store, what makes the opening different than others? Why is it unique? These are questions you need to answer yourself before you propose the story to someone else.

• Sources-When promoting your story, try to look for other sources that support your idea. Customers that enjoy your service or product and are willing to speak with the press are a great resource for a reporter. Perhaps even a spokesperson from the Chamber of Commerce or local Kiwanis club. Anyone that is independent of you and is willing to offer “kudos” to a member of the press can really help set your story apart from others.

• Biggest? If your story is a “first” (or biggest, largest, fastest, etc…), the press eats this kind of information. In fact, you might even want to try to contact the reporter you think might give you the best exposure to your customer base. Offer an exclusive. An exclusive is an offer to a journalist to run the story first, before anyone else. Now if you do offer an exclusive, it really has to have an incredible “Wow” factor, so think about this carefully first.

• Data: Reporters love data. If you can provide any kind of statistical data that supports your story, you’re more likely to get the attention of the media. If you think about it, you’ll often hear the media quote a source saying; “The top ten reasons….” Numbers and statistics can really make your story more interesting to reporters.

Just remember, when you’re writing an announcement, don’t get caught up with ensuring you write what you want. Its not about you…it’s about the journalist and their audience you’re trying to reach. What will get their attention and how can you write a story idea that will stick? Follow these suggestions and watch how quickly your idea will be gobbled up by the press.

If you need expert PR advice and a professional to help, check out Resource Nation’s business center of public relations professionals.

A lot of us small business owners are so busy getting the next marketing tactic up and running that we don’t even think to ask ourselves if it’s working.

That’s why it’s smart marketing to set up some tracking mechanisms at the same time you are implementing the marketing tactic.

Below are 3 methods for keeping tabs on how well your marketing is actually working:

1)    Web site links.

Include web site links in your ezine so your subscribers can respond to special offers or promotions. You can track of how many people are interested enough to click on the link, and you should also be able to measure sales as a direct result of that promotion or offer (with your shopping cart program).

2)    Build in tracking mechanisms to a specific activity.

For example, if you are doing a teleseminar and you are inviting the attendees to visit your web site to sign up for it, create a special page on your web site to drive them to. Then use some kind of free website analytics program like Google Analytics to see how many people visited that page and signed up.

3)    You can also create specific web pages for a campaign and track the hits you get from a campaign. You can look at the links that people come in to your site from (referring URLs) - these can be very useful in creating online relationships. Call the people that are linking to your website - they may be interested in purchasing your services or hiring you for a workshop or event.

With these tracking methods, you will be able to determine what percentage of the total pieces distributed or people reached, responded to your marketing offer and how many took the action requested (i.e. downloaded your free-giveaway, subscribed to your newsletter or ezine, purchased your product, and so on).

Then you’re in a good position to make smart decisions about which marketing tactics you should continue to use, which ones need some “tweaking”, and which ones you should stop doing.

iPhones are high-quality, stylish, user-friendly mobile devices that offer a variety of efficient, easy-to-use applications. Business professionals are jumping on the iPhone bandwagon because of the phone’s assortment of valuable business applications.

If you are a business owner and need phones for your business in addition to the iPhone, visit our resource center and compare quotes from phone system providers.

Appealing business iPhone applications can include the capability to accurately monitor income and expenses, effectively organize details, tasks, and contacts, easily convert currency, and more. While there are several business iPhone apps, below is a list of the Top 11 best iPhone applications for businesses.

JustAddMoney Expense Tracker - this business application allows multiple users to track money in real-time. Users can enter receipts, checks, credit card purchases, and cash purchases at the moment of the purchase, customize income and expense categories, transfer money from one account to another, and generate financial reports. Because this is a multi-user application, users can share financial information and get updated instantly upon someone’s tracking entry. This is an ideal solution for businesses requiring constant updating of financial dealings, particularly if colleagues spend from the same account.

Mobile Password Safe – with the advances in technology, it is necessary to have a secure location to store multiple passwords. Mobile Password Safe allows only the user to gain access and passwords are decrypted into the browser, which means they can’t be hacked by third parties. This is the best iPhone application for business professionals with various accounts, codes for computer programs, and other hard to remember passwords. This application keeps passwords organized allowing users to specify labels, categories, and searches. It’s ideal for keeping business passwords separate from personal passwords and it is convenient and secure.

Goal-Tracker is designed to help the business professional reach his or her various goals. This application allows users to enter goals, hold themselves accountable, track progress, and separate and organize personal versus professional goals.

Currency Convert – this iPhone business application offers a quick and easy way to convert amounts of money between 23 currencies. Instant updating with the tap of your finger shows you up-to-date conversion rates on the go. Additionally, you can sort the currencies to keep your most used currencies on top for quick access and convenience.

ACTPrinter – this application is the most innovative and helps save the environment by not wasting paper. It allows a user to “print” any document from a Mac PC to an iPhone or iPod Touch. Essentially, it stores documents electronically so people can take documents with them on their phone and view them easily and conveniently without sorting through a stack of papers.

Timewerks – this is a time-tracking and invoicing application for all types of business professionals. From freelancers to consultants to lawyers to salespeople and contractors, users of this business iPhone application can track billable hours and create invoices. With Timewerks, you can manage and organize the time you spend on various projects and get detailed reports, easily filter through invoices, clients, work items, hours, etc.

iBeam – this application allows you to instantly send items such as contact information and photos directly to another iPhone. iBeam saves time and frustration by allowing iPhone users to instantly “Beam” information to each other as opposed to saying it, repeating it, and typing it into your phone or contact management system.

Ledger – with this, the best iPhone application for businesses seeking a money management application, you can record purchases, money transfers, loans, and receipts. Additionally, you can easily view transactions and details for all accounts, record simple or complex transactions, and edit account and transaction information.

TouchCall - iPhone users can conveniently, easily, and quickly find business information on the go. Say you need the phone number or address for a restaurant you were supposed to be at for a meeting and you’re running late, simply click the easy one-touch buttons on the interface and the information is provided to you.

Task2Gather – this application is ideal for maintaining all your business, personal, and family tasks. You can organize tasks, separate them, and share them with iPhone users and non-iPhone users. Additionally, the tasks are always accessible from your iPhone and your computer. Tasks can be divided into subtasks so you can delegate to colleagues.

Contact Hero – this business iPhone app is more than just a contact manager and online address book. You can collect, merge, organize and manage all your contacts from various contact management systems, such as Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo!. You can manage your list of calls to make, keep a list of contacts you have made, and keep a detailed list of contact history for each contact. There are various ways to identify your contacts, for example numbers, colorful icons, or country flags. Also, you can schedule email messages to go out to any of your contacts at anytime in the future.

Each week at Resource Nation, PR agencies and companies submit hundreds of articles to us for a chance to get published on our site. From advice to entrepreneurs on how to buy a phone system to updated news regarding text messaging laws, we see it all.

Recently, Bob O’Hara from O’Hara and Company sent us a letter. In this letter, he advises entrepreneurs how to form an exit strategy before actually calling it quits. In this economy, it’s a good read and one worth looking at:

AN OPEN LETTER TO BUSINESS OWNERS

Dear Business Owner:

We are in difficult economic times and many business owners are being faced with numerous challenges in this economy. So I am sure many of you are thinking, “This is not the time for me to be concerned about Exit Planning.” However, I believe this is exactly the time for you to create or address your Exit Strategy. I believe that planning is more vital than ever. You should not only plan for how to make it through the difficult times, but also evaluate how your strategies will help you grow and build sustainable value for the long term.

I’ve given much thought to the challenges that business owners are facing. I have several ideas about helping you and your company to stay on track to achieve your Exit Goals. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Increase business value by designing incentive plans for your management team that reward long-term employment and provide short-term incentives to increase your bottom line. Get your key employees on the same page as you and have them help you build business value.
• This may be the perfect time to acquire smaller, less adaptable, less capitalized or less well-managed competitors. Certainly, this is a buyer’s market and there are ways to help minimize your financial exposure.
• The time to preserve the value of your most important asset – your company – is now.  Look at how you can minimize tax exposure and how to protect your company from unexpected risks, for example, the departure of a key employee. Look at ways to protect your trade secrets, customer lists, vendor relationships and referral sources.
• If you are planning on selling your business to a third party, there may not be many more peaks in the mergers and acquisition market place before you reach your desired retirement age. So it is beneficial to plan for how you will have your business positioned and ready for sale when the economy rebounds. Just like any stock, you want to sell your business when it is growing and on the upside of the growth curve.
• If you have planned an ownership transfer to your children, look at the timetable. Assuming your children are nearing the appropriate age and experience, now may be the perfect time to begin that transfer. With a reduced business value due to current economic conditions, it may be financially easier for you to transfer the Company to your children and achieve your objectives.
• If transferring your Company to your employees is your preferred exit route, this may be the optimal time to begin that transfer. With a potentially lower business value, if you decide to bonus your key employees stock of the Company, you can do so with minimal effect on cash flow and a lower tax impact on your key employees. You can bonus stock, still retain control and simultaneously motivate key employees to stay with the Company.
• Make sure your contingency plan is up-to-date. This is the perfect time to review what plans you have in place to insure the business can succeed without you if the unexpected was to happen.
• Prepare a comprehensive personal financial plan, evaluate the current state of your personal affairs and determine what you need to do to secure your personal financial future.

Don’t stand impassively on the sidelines during a time of economic volatility. Unlike the “average” investor, you are not limited to the single strategy of pulling dwindling assets out of themarket. Even if the general economy suffers, your business profitability need not. Look at your alternatives and get to work.

Best wishes for continued success!

Bob O’Hara