Didn’t go to Stanford for your MBA? Well, now you can. Top notch universities in the US and abroad, business schools, museums, public broadcasting stations and state education organizations are all part of YouTube EDU, Academic Earth, MIT Open Course Ware and iTunes U which offer free downloads of educational podcasts or videos. These presentations cover a range of topics from VoIP security forums to language courses. iTunes U is the most popular platform for these free downloads. iTunes U’s popularity is most likely attributed to its promotion of free and mobile learning. Although released in 2007, not many users are maximizing its true potential. iTunes U has the prospective of creating a more empowered business person.

How it works:

iTunes U is accessed through iTunes and is found at the top of the menu bar. The podcasts can be downloaded individually or you can subscribe for automatic downloads as they become available. This second feature is used primarily for an on-going series podcast which operates like an on-going course.

How to Use it:

iTunes U’s direct relationship with iTunes means podcasts can be watched or listened to through a computer or can be taken anywhere with an iPod or an iPhone. iTunes U can be accessed from mobile devices through their cellular networks and via Wi-Fi. When accessing iTunes U from a computer, you can even send the podcast to your employees to ensure they are also up-to-date with current technologies or business concepts.

Whether your company is trying to break into a new industry, revamp your company logo or stay current with trends, there is probably a lecture for it.

Here is an exaggerated hypothetical situation illustrating how to utilize iTunes U to improve your business:

A small business owner is deciding between a social media focused online marketing campaign or a direct mail campaign. From listening to some iTunes U lectures, he decides that an online marketing campaign would be best and could be part of a larger search engine optimization effort. This savvy businessman decides to learn more about online marketing strategies before hiring anyone. After several lectures, he hires an experienced graphic design firm familiar with techniques referenced in the podcasts. He managed to do all of this free research on his iPod while on his daily subway commute to work each day.

As with the hypothetical example above, listening to these lectures may not illicit the necessary skills to do the project yourself, but will create a more knowledgeable entrepreneur. This knowledge creates a more confident negotiator and may eliminate the need to outsource more basic projects. Whether trying to learn Spanish to attract new clients or learn about social networking sites, with over 200,000 free educational files available through iTunes U alone, not taking advantage of this educational opportunity is too expensive of a mistake to make.

With news that retail sales rose 2.7% in August (higher than the 2% increase many experts predicted), many small business owners are breathing a sigh of relief.  Nearly every business blogger has done some version of the “Recession-proof Companies” post, but what many fail to address is how you as a small business owner can translate these successful strategies for your own company. Should you dedicate more budget to online marketing efforts, position your brand differently, or employ several brand building strategies at once? Here’s a look at a few industries that have managed to slide through the past years relatively unscathed by the economic woes plaguing many businesses- and how you can use their secrets of success.

Fast Food

“Fast casual dining” (fast food restaurants) have done well over the past years. The success of businesses that offer lower-priced fare is often attributed to customers’ increasing desire for bargains, which sounds right- until you consider the case of McDonalds, which attributes a same-store sales rise of 2.6% to the launch of it’s McCafe line of espresso and coffee drinks. Conventional wisdom dictates that customers would forgo fancy coffee beverages the more financially stretched they become. But McDonalds turned what could have been a huge disadvantage into a marketing ploy: instead of going out the $5 lattes to save cash, just switch to a cheaper version. The $100 million campaign placed McDonalds as the cash-conscious alternative to Starbucks and other high-end coffee retailers.

Steal this Strategy: McDonalds’s strategy is a great example of turning lemons into lemonade. Even if you can’t position your product as the cash-saving equivalent of a pricier or luxury item, you can probably think of creative ways to turn a perceived hurdle into a successful marketing strategy. Online marketing efforts, pay per click ads, and related strategies can shift customer perception of your product in a relatively short span of time.

Beer

Alcohol is often touted as a “recession proof” product, even though this isn’t entirely the case- “value sector” brands tend to see sales increase or remain steady because drinkers mid-market beverages downgrade to more cost effective alternatives. Brands on the high end, where customer loyalty is the strongest, tend to sustain minimal damage during rough economic times, according to Beer Business Daily. Illustrative of this trend is the case of Chicago brewer Goose Island, which seen an increase in sales of its $8 and up bottles at local bars.

Steal this Strategy: The lesson here is that it can pay to position yourself either at the top or at the bottom of a specific market. Companies that produce niche products or those with a cult following seem to be less likely to lose business to mid- or low-market brands because loyalty is so strong. Building customer relationships can be as simple as offering special promotions to repeat clients or customers, initiating an email marketing effort, or ramping up a social media marketing campaign.

Pharmaceuticals

Medical News Today reports that revenues of pharmaceutical companies actively developing new drugs grew to $89.7 billion last year. Though some have pointed out that pharmaceutical industry growth in the US is “not sustainable” the current numbers show that explosive revenue growth is possible, even in a down economy.

Steal this Strategy: Not all drug companies are making piles of money. The largest profits seem to be reserved for those companies that place the most importance on growth: developing new therapies, obtaining new patents, and bringing new drugs to market. Innovation in any industry is key for long term success, but it can also drive short-term revenue, as well. Now is the time to evaluate growth strategies and get customers excited about new product or service offerings.

Technology

Some of the industries thriving in the recession are easy calls- people always need to eat, and take care of health needs, for example. Success in bargain markets is equally easy to predict. Don’t despair if your business isn’t serving a “steady demand” industry or producing low-cost goods. High-end retailers can also fare well in an economic downturn if they are strategic with sales and marketing efforts. Apple, the stylish innovator that brought the world the iPod, the iPhone, and a whole host of other sleek, easy-interface devices is the perfect example of a high-end brand doing better than expected in an economic decline.

Steal this Strategy: Apple capitalizes on all of the strategies employed by the other companies described: customers are fiercely loyal (even if prices are high), it positions itself as a “better” alternative to existing offerings (PCs, music players, etc.) and it manages to create huge excitement for even less than monumental innovations (iTunes 9). It does all of these things incredibly well. The lesson here: combine your strengths into a comprehensive marketing and sales strategy. Focusing on one technique might work well, but integrating several well-targeted efforts might work even better.

Sharks have long been one of the earth’s most maligned creatures.  Even though we’ve all heard the statistics- for example, that you’re likelier to be hit by airplane debris falling from the sky than be attacked by a shark- most of us still cringe at the theme from “Jaws.”  If the shark were a company, we’d say it had a serious marketing problem- until now, that is.  Every year, the Discovery Channel makes an effort to give sharks some much-needed PR help.  The more you learn about sharks, the more you start to realize that they actually have a few things to teach us.  In the spirit of Shark Week, here are a few ways we can all be more shark-like in our online marketing efforts:

Sharks can smell one drop of blood in a million drops of water. While extremely heightened physical senses isn’t something one can emulate, you can definitely seek out the information you need to craft a successful marketing effort.  Google your company, do a Twitter search…find out what people are saying about your business, your products, or your services.

Sharks regularly shed and replace their teeth. Don’t be afraid to let go of efforts that clearly aren’t working.  If you’ve placed affiliate ads on a site for a while and still aren’t seeing the traffic to your site that you want, maybe it’s not a good match.

The largest shark species eat the smallest prey. Competing exclusively for high-dollar sales or big-name clients isn’t always the best strategy.  Throw a wide net with email marketing blasts or email newsletters - they’re free to mail, fairly easy to create, and if done right, very effective.

Sharks have to keep moving stay alive. Sharks “breathe” by swimming forward, which allows water to pass over their gills.  Staying in motion is important- keywords and site rankings change, so your search engine optimization efforts can fade over time.  Managing an SEO campaign is a constant process- make sure you keep up to date.

Sharks cannot swim backward. Focusing on going forward is always a smart idea- if you have a clear plan of where you’re going.  Don’t forge ahead with a social media strategy unless you have a strategic plan and clear goals- once information is out there, you can’t take it back.

For more cool shark trivia, you can take the Shark Week Quiz at the Discovery Channel website.  For more tips about online marketing efforts that don’t involve sharks, take a look at our Buyer Guide.

The numbers are in- both Statcounter and ComScore show Microsoft’s Bing search engine, launched two weeks ago, chipping away at the solid hold Google has long maintained on search engine traffic.  Within a week after it launched, Bing had jumped Yahoo! for the #2 spot, and caused Google’s market share to drop 6 points.  Granted, the drop was from 78% to 71.99%, but if early data is any indication, Bing could be poised to make even bigger gains as more users become familiar with its features.

So what does this all mean for the average business?  If you’re spending money on online marketing services, such as SEO (search engine optimization) services or PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns, the fact that there’s a new search engine on the block is big news- and can mean some big changes in your online marketing strategy:

Time to make adjustments? Not so fast…
If your web traffic has gone a little haywire in the past few weeks, you’re not alone. But don’t make any quick decisions to change your site or find a new online marketing service just yet. As users switch to Bing-which uses different algorithmic variables to return results based on certain keywords and business segments- you may have seen a huge spike, or a huge dip, in web traffic.  Google also made adjustments to a few processes during the past few weeks.

Think about content.
Rumor has it that Bing rewards content-rich pages more heavily than other search engines.  As Bing becomes more popular, it may be a good idea to focus on finding more quality content for your site.  Most online marketing services can help you with this- if they don’t provide copywriting services, they might be able to recommend a source that does.

Think about links.
Microsoft search engines typically give more weight to internal (inbound) links, as opposed to Google, which purportedly values external links more.  If you have the ability to edit site content yourself, make sure all internal links are working correctly.  You can also enlist web designers or search engine optimization services to create internal links that make your site more navigable, increasing your search engine ranking in the process.

Be thorough.
Bing removes duplicate results from search engine pages- one of the initial complaints about the service is that some search results return a “low ranked” page- for example, rather than displaying your site’s homepage, a product page would be displayed.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that customers will see your homepage first, be blown away, and keep browsing.  They might just land on one of those other pages- you know, the ones you haven’t updated in a while.  Be thorough when you update information on your site.

Consider PPC.
As Bing becomes more popular, spending more on pay per click services might be good idea.  Microsoft typically produces a high return on investment for pay per click efforts.  Coupled with the highly qualified traffic Bing is predicted to generate, a PPC campaign might be looking like a better investment.  A skilled online marketing professional will be able to help you create the best PPC campaign for your goals.

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Hitwise, an internet statistics site, published a recent report showing that search engine queries with higher word counts are becoming more and more prevalent every year. Most searches are still only one, two or three words long, but they are down 3%, 5% and 1% respectively.

And while two-word searches still make up the largest portion of online queries, accounting for 23.47% of total searches, searches containing 4 to 8 words or more have experienced a growth that ranges from 3 – 20% each year. Just between February 2008 and February 2009, searches with more than 8 words increased by 20% and searches averaging 5 to more than 8 words were up 9%.

Industry insiders like Kevin Lee, one of the founders and CEO of search agency Didit, say that the growing popularity of long word-count searches is a sign that search engine users are getting smarter. “Longer queries are a sign of the searchers becoming more educated and savvy and essentially being trained by the fact that results for shorter queries tend to return less relevant results than longer searches,” said Lee.

So it is the need to cut through the search engine clutter that has led to the development of more sophisticated online users. The VP of technology at Ask.com, Keith Hogan, agrees. The expectations of search engine users have risen, he says. Most people today are not willing to simply type in a company name into a search engine and then navigate through the company’s own site to find what they need.  “Before, users might enter a query like ‘periodic table’ looking for the atomic weight of Boron,” Hogan said, explaining that, now, a searcher will type in a more detailed, full question because he wishes to be led directly to the desired information straight from the search results page.

One strategy that many sites are using is to promote large, user-generated question aggregator sites, Hogan said. “That’s not the place that search engines want to pull information from. They want it from an authoritative source.” He recommends instead that brands include things like FAQ pages on their websites, as these allow search engines to extract more information from them.

As search trends continue to change along with an increasingly internet savvy searcher population, search engines are working out better ways of predicting the intentions of internet users, even users type in short, unspecific searches. Kevin Lee explains: “[Search engines do this] through a combination of searcher profiling—prior search behavior or user volunteered data—and use of additional non-search data such as geography, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and perhaps connection speed.”

The Hitwise report showed the four major search engines undergoing less than a 1% change in its number of users since January 2009. Google was the only major search engine that has continued to experience user growth, its share increasing about 8% since February of last year. Shares for Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask all went down by 17%, 20% and 10% respectively.

For more internet marketing tips visit Best Rank’s SEO Blog.

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Local search is on the rise.  Search engine users are moving away from the one or two word search terms and continue to get more specific.  For example, the individual that is in need of a dentist would have searched for “dentist” in the past.  Over the past few years the average web user has learned how to get better results by typing more information into the search box.

A large portion of these three or four word search phrases include a city or area name (ex. New York Dentist).  When you search on Google with a [(city/area term) + (product/service keyword)] you frequently see a map within the search results.  This is commonly referred to as the 10-pack.  These results have a completely different set of rules in relation to the standard organic or natural results.

For more information on local search make sure to register for an upcoming webinar entitled “Local Search for National Brands”.  Although the title refers to national brands, any business will gain a better understanding of local search from the presentation.

Can I help it that I am smiling from ear to ear?  I have been floating on air for the last 24 hours.  Let me explain.  I have been telling our clients and writers alike to engage with our readers for quite sometime.  Of course, their response is “yes” then they never do anything about it, or should I say their response is “I never get anything out of it”.  Quite honestly, I wonder if people know what “Engage with your readers” really means.

I asked one of our clients to join every Social network they thought would have their target market and start engaging them in NON-sales copy.  If you are into online marketing, you can see the blank looks on their face.  You see, we are entering a second Internet phase; businesses are downsizing and trying to stretch every dollar looking for efficiency.  They’re shifting their budget from PPC, while using SEO for organic traffic.

What does that mean?  In simple terms, great content with a mix of social media. The new era of marketing, which created the foundations of marketing on the web, made its way to a new buzz in the industry - Inbound Marketing.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound Marketing focuses on bringing the customer to the business, instead of the business searching for the customer

In outbound marketing, the “traditional” way, companies use poorly targeted techniques to bring in customers.  They use radio and T.V. advertising, spam, cold-calling, print advertising, junk mail and more.  In other words, they use every method that most people get irritated about.

These techniques are long out-dated, less effective and more expensive, thanks to technology.  TiVo, spam filters, caller ID that blocks cold calls and tools like RSS render print and visual advertising almost useless.  While these methods of advertising still work to some extent, it’s much more expensive.

Inbound Marketing flips outbound marketing on its head.

The Internet opened up whole new avenues and marketing possibilities.  Instead of television ads that scream at potential customers to “buy, buy, buy”, or junk mail that gets thrown away, inbound marketing has a gentler, more persuasive technique.  Entertaining, informative videos, interesting blogs, useful content and tools – inbound marketing is a soft, inviting whisper rather than a pounding sledgehammer.  With these tools and techniques, highly qualified customers are attracted to the business through a combination of curiosity, confidence and trust.

The Three Components of a Successful Inbound Marketing Campaign

1.  Content:  Every Inbound Marketer knows that content is king.  Information and persuasive writing, helpful tips and tools help attract potential customers to the company’s website or business.

2.  Search Engine Optimization: Potential customers find this informative content much easier through SEO.  Building your site, and building up inbound links to your site, through optimization and website design “best practices” maximizes your search engine rankings.  SEO brings your product, website or company into the public’s eye, so they can begin the buying process.

3.  Social Media:  When the content is truly helpful, informative and interesting, people tend to discuss it with their friends, family, co-workers etc.  Distributed across several networks, it gains credibility and authenticity, making it more likely to draw people to your website.

You’re wondering what any of that has to do with the smile on my face?  In one day I was able to prove that using inbound marketing can not only save you money by getting free targeted traffic, but you learn that investing in your company’s future sometimes has it’s rewards without trying.

I was featured in Businessweek.com for engaging in Social media.  That alone has sent our website a nice boost of traffic.  I know I may not get all the business that‘s out there but, the way I see it nobody does. However, the new business I do get can result in a higher base of  happy customers, more referrals, and ultimately more sales.

The internet marketing industry is still very young and evolving rapidly.  Small business owners don’t have the time to keep up with the latest trends and tactics, especially in regards to seo, ppc and social media.  The result is that professionals in the field hold the responsibility to educate, inform and lead their clients in a direction that provides the best opportunity for success.

The process of guiding the client in the right direction has a few required steps.

1. Do your due diligence in regards to the client, the industry and their competition.

2. Listen to the business owner and try to get a sense of what it’s like to be in their shoes.

3. Re-evaluate your understanding of what makes the business tick based off of your learnings.

4. Educate.

5. Strategize the best course of action.  Does the client need SEO, PPC, both, etc?  Will social media work?  What budget is required?

6. Implement campaigns.

7. Show the value of your hard work to the client (preferably with success metrics

8. Re-evaluate the direction of campaigns based off of measurements.

9. Re-educate.

10. Course correct and repeat steps 7 - 10.

Notice the theme of re-evaluting.  We all have a tendency to hold on to our preconceived notions, but forcing ourselves to take a step back often will improve perspective.  This holds true both as we understand our clients’ businesses better and as we practice what we preach by adapting to the ever changing world of internet marketing.

In the end, the client should know their business best.  But does their understanding correlate to the ever changing online world?  My advice is to simply be up front and clear.  Don’t be afraid to say “I disagree.  In my experience this technique would work best online” and explain why.  It takes a rare breed to push back on someone who writes your check, but that is one of the differences between constantly finding new business or making the relationships you have last.

Visit Resource Nation’s online marketing expert business directory to find experts to help with your project.

Customers just aren’t biting like they were this time last year. This means businesses need to stretch their precious marketing dollars further than ever.

Here are five affordable ways to reach new customers and convert new sales…even if your marketing budget is a little smaller than it used to be.

#1: Refer a friend programs

Why not let your existing customers handle your marketing for you? Create a refer-a-friend program to leverage the people who know and love your business the most. Referral programs are easy - simply send out an email or postcard to your existing customer base and let them know about the promotion. Offer these existing customers a reward for telling other people about your new business. And make sure that these new customers get a nice carrot-and-stick as well. Special discounts or promotional items are both proven-successful methods for generating excitement around a referral program.

And don’t forget to make the process as easy as possible. If you are kick-starting the program via email, include copy or an image that can be easily forwarded on to other people. Most importantly, don’t forget to track the campaign using an offer code in order to see how well it performed.

#2: A viral campaign

Many companies, large and small, are getting tremendous mileage out of their viral marketing campaigns. There are several approaches to take here, but most involve creating a humorous video and submitting it to YouTube or a compelling article or site page and getting it up in the rankings at Digg or other social networking sites. These types of viral marketing will establish your brand as hip, funny and web-savvy, all while spreading the word about your products and services in a highly inexpensive manner.

#3: An email newsletter campaign

You’ve got your customers’ email addresses…now use them! Create a rich email marketing campaign filled with relevant content and compelling offers, then send it out monthly. Always keep the content fresh and remember to develop solid subject lines for the emails so that open rates will be high. Make the newsletters interactive – ask for users to submit their questions, comments or stories for upcoming issues, and offer exclusive prizes and goodies to those who submit the best user-generated content.

#4: Public relations

In today’s buzz-driven society, public relations is king (or queen). Investing a few thousand dollars in a PR agency can pay huge dividends down the road. No matter what you are selling, PR firms know exactly how to create excitement around your business. If, for example, you are selling designer T-shirts, a PR firm can get your products in the spotlight at a celebrity charity auction. If you sell widgets, they can find a magazine that is looking for a cover story about the world’s hottest widget-makers. There’s no limit to what great public relations can do for your business.

#5: Organic search

Search engine optimization is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your target audience online. By hiring SEO professionals to restructure your site and develop keyword –friendly content, you can boost your rankings on Google, Yahoo! and other major search engines. Imagine coming up at the top of page ONE is your chosen area of focus! For an affordable cost, SEO professionals can help your business reach out to the people who are searching for your products and services right now.

This Ain’t No Field of Dreams

Your website design is killer; you FINALLY have it up and running. You have all your content, maybe some cool bells and whistles, and you are ready for business. As the movie says, you “build it and they will come” – soon thousands of people will visit and learn all about your great products or services. Right? Well, not really. According to a Netcraft report from May of this year, there are over 168 million web sites and counting. The word is out and businesses large and small know that having a web site is no longer optional it is mandatory.

So, how do you get people to visit your site? Unless you are a large company with plenty of brand recognition it may take a little time to build up your traffic, but there a variety of ways to begin doing so that are free or relative inexpensive. Here are few simple ways to start.

1. Include your site address on everything you use as collateral. This seems obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget to include their web site in their advertising or their email communication.

2. Make sure to register your site with all the free search engines such as www.dmoz.org, www.scrubtheweb.com, and www.ineedhits.com. There are a lot of these search engines and it can be time consuming, but it is worth it. There are also companies that you can pay to submit your site to a variety of paid and free search engines. Note: It can take up to 60 days for your site to show up when searched.

3. Affiliations and linking are a great way to build traffic to your site. You can offer to include links of other businesses that compliment your own, in exchange for them to do the same. Another way to increase your links is by social networking through sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. Link popularity has direct benefits, but can also increase your rankings with popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Check out www.linkpopularity.com to check your sites links.

4. Send regular email announcements that link back to your site, with specials and news just for your customers. Not only does this drive traffic back to your site, but also reminds them you are still around. There is an added bonus in that it makes them feel special, like they have the inside track. Always remember to capture email contact information when ever possible so you can build up your email database. I always recommend my clients get an account with Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com). It is easiest way to build a database, organize it and create communications for your customers. Plus they allow your visitors to opt-in and opt-out as they prefer.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – There are many ways to optimize your site, but the simplest way to start is by making sure you have good content on every page and that the content is reflected in your META tags and keywords. Make sure to use words that your target market will use to search for products and services your offer. Be warned – SEO is not something you do once, just when you launch your site. It is an ongoing process. Many companies now have an SEO as a line item in the marketing budgets.

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