Outreach potential with Twitter, blogs, websites, Facebook and YouTube.

We all want to generate more leads and more sales. Isn’t that a key function of your internet marketing plan?

We keep hearing about many different online marketing tools and how all these different businesses use social media, websites, blogs, etc. to gain a lot of followers and tons of sales.

Many of our customers ask… where are the big sales? How do we take advantage of social networks to generate great sales? Should we have one more website?

All valid questions, thoughts and concerns.

As we look at different approaches to marketing online, we’re also evaluating the reach potential for our clients. Many come to us and say, “We’ve seen this from Twitter. I think I want Twitter because I heard company XYZ (a Fortune 500 company) uses Twitter and sold $x last month.”

As a consultant to them, our first round of questions obviously comes to them with a focus on your website and your current online marketing presence. How strong is it?

Then we jump to questions about how tech-savvy they (and their staff) are.

And finally, we come to the budget. Sure, you can shoot for the moon (like these huge Fortune 500 companies), but not on a budget of $500 a month.

Obviously, we need to gain some perspective and focus.

Below we’ve outlined our current position on reach across 5 different online marketing tools.

(and obviously, technology changes very quickly, as does our opinion on ranking these different tools. Yes, this has happened in the past and we continually educate/update our customers on what is best for their situation.)

Internet Marketing Tools: Which Provides the Best Reach for a Small to Medium Business?

Before we get a lot of negative feedback on this post, we first need to set the record straight. As far as we know, the Google search engine still holds 65% of all search volume. Bing/Yahoo take up about 30% combined. And the rest of the search engines (aol, ask, etc.) are looking for the remaining 5% or so.

Also, we totally understand that some tools provide more of a “referral” type of service.

We’ve taken all of these different things into account as we’ve developed this blog article. And we realize that things will/may change over time. However, all of these tools can become part of your internet marketing plan.

OK, to the rest of the post.

In this article, we have looked at 5 different tools; Websites, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Each of these tools has its own strengths and weaknesses. Then let’s get started.

1. Websites: In general, websites are probably the most effective outreach tool companies have at their disposal. Most of the companies have already developed a website and their real problem is that they need the website optimized for search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). In our book, the website is often the place to start a business. After all, it allows the company to stay out of the way completely while having a strong search engine presence.
2. Blog: Blogging comes in at a #2 close in our book. Blogging has some really positive aspects associated with it. For example, the appearance of the site can be adjusted quickly and easily. Also, a business can quickly use the built-in CMS (content management system) to easily make changes, add content or edit posts on the site. This tool allows a business to be very functional and flexible. The only reason it slides in at no. #2 (vs. a tie for #1) is that there can be a little more practical applications with a blog. What we’re specifically thinking about is the constant desire/need to add relevant content 2-3 times a week to the site.
3. Twitter: Next we look at Twitter. And the general impression of Twitter (at the current time and depending on your business model) is that you might want to wait on Twitter until you’ve locked down some of the other tools and attracting leads for your business. In a recent book on Twitter (yes, we read about everything we get our hands on), the author likens Twitter to feeling like you’re on a crowded beach trying to get your message across. There tends to be a lot of conversations on Twitter and standing out will be the real key. Recently, HubSpot (http://www.hubspot.com) reported in an online webinar that the average link on online social media has a 3-hour lifespan. What this means is that you would need to tweet 3-5 times a day to keep your message fresh and spread. In Twitter’s defense, there are different tools you can use that help you manage your tweets and stay on top of your conversation much more effectively and efficiently. Again though, these tools require you to be familiar with a computer and use it on a consistent basis.
4. Facebook is the next tool we identify. All in all, Facebook has a slightly higher reach level than Twitter. If you were to use Facebook alone. However, if you use Facebook in conjunction with your website and past customers, then the reach potential is greatly increased. When you use Facebook in conjunction with your website, you can really go viral fast. And, when your customers “like,” that action shows up on your customer’s friend pages. Therefore, a great reference for your business.
5. Youtube: Lastly, we look at YouTube. This is a great tool for outreach. There are two reasons why this tool works so well for outreach. First, the YouTube video can be highly relevant to keywords. This means that when a consumer searches for your products and services, they can find you on the first page of the search results. How cool is that! Second, the video itself is like a miniature sales pitch. What do you want the client to do? Call? Ask them to call you about the video. Your phone will have some use.

In general, we consider websites and blogs to be the main way that businesses can reach potential customers. The main focus would be to have a strong search engine presence and that will lead to generating more leads and more sales.

As a second level implementation, we would recommend YouTube and Facebook. YouTube will help your business gain exposure online and on the first page of search engines, while also acting as a sales tool. Facebook will help you grow through people you meet and people who are your “friends”.

The third would be Twitter. While this tool currently ranks last on this list, rest assured that we believe EVERYONE will end up with a Twitter account at some point in the future.

One of the best ways to implement some of these tools would be to bundle them together. For example, there are many internet marketing companies They are starting to offer Facebook/Twitter packages. These packages include some tweets as well as some Facebook wall posts.

To see if your business is ready to implement some of these tools, contact Jeff Hensiek at 866-503-7673, email, or through our internet marketing plan Proposal form.

Again, if you found any value with this post, please post a comment. We appreciate it.