The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing – In a Nutshell________________________________________________________________________
If you’d like a recap, or you’re revisiting the book for a quick summary, here
are the 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing ‘in a nutshell’…
PILLAR 1: Keyword Research
There are several paid-for, and a couple of free keyword research tools that you can use. But what is keyword research? Keyword research and the correct positioning of those keyword phrases makes sure that your web page is targeted towards the phrases that people actually type into search engines. Keyword research tools work by analyzing previous search trends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #1 – Keyword Research:• Structure your site correctly to begin with. You know what your business is about and what your home page is about. Make sure your keywords reflect your business purpose.
• You should aim to structure your website in a logical manner for both users and for search engines.• After you choose your home page keyword phrase, choose your site categories. What categories represent your business? Brainstorm ideas and use resources such as an online thesaurus, KWmap, Wordtracker and the Google External Keyword Tool to come up with 10-30 relevant categories for your site.
• Focus on your individual pages after your categories. In an ideal world you should devise a structure of 10 to 30 individual pages within each of those categories. If you want, and if your website is large enough, then you can go for sub-categories within categories before drilling down to pages within that section.
• Conduct keyword research to come up with one keyword phrase per page.• Be as specific as possible. By selecting long-tail keyword phrases, even if you have fewer visitors to your site, you will have a higher conversion rate from the traffic you do receive. In the long term bringing in a couple of visitors per day to an individual page, equals 500-600 very relevant visitors over a year.
• Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #1 Keyword Research here: http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar1Position your keyword phrase in your site architecture – and this is where we start Pillar #2 – Website Design.
PILLAR 2: Website Design
There are two essential facets of good website design: Pleasing design and efficient coding. Your website needs to be pleasing to your consumer's eyes. It also needs to 'flow' nicely. Essential coding to pay attention to includes your page title, heading tags and navigational links.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #2 – Website Design:• Take some time to think about your behind the scenes coding – make your whole website as efficient as possible, which will help search engines when they crawl through your site.
• Get your navigation structure right and make sure it's logical for search engines and individual users.• Remember that your website visitors may land on an individual page via a search engine and good navigation will allow them to quickly understand where that page is in relation to the rest of your site. This will make your new visitors more likely to stick around for longer.
• Ensure that you’re aware of the 8 essential aspects of onsite optimization which will help to improve your search engine rankings.
• By undertaking continuous testing and analyzing what does and doesn’t work, you can alter the structure of the site to maximize conversion rates.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #2 Website Design here: http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar2
PILLAR 3: Blog Technology
Just because a website looks like a website doesn't mean it's just a website. It could be a blog too. Blogs have lots of great tools built into them that make search engines like them a lot more than a static website. Features like category tags, RSS feeds and the 'pinging' of new content to other sites means you can't afford to ignore the value of blogging as an internet marketing strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #3 – Blog Technology:• A blog doesn’t necessarily have to be published in a journal style and displayed in chronological order. The content of a blog can be anything from articles to opinions and the most important aspect about a blog from a business standpoint is the technology – the inbuilt automated internet marketing capability
• Wordpress.org is probably the most appropriate blogging software for most businesses. It’s free to use, state-of-the-art and offers bespoke design and functionality
• Plugins are small software programs designed by independent coders that add additional functionality to your blog. There are thousands of plugins to choose from and most of them are free-of-charge.
• Pinging and RSS feeds can be used to help to automate your blog marketing. Pinging is the process that makes a blog and news directories aware of the fact that you’ve just published a new post. RSS Feeds let people subscribe to your content and allow them to view the content without actually visiting your site.
• Podcasting can be used as a way to augment your blog posts. Podcasts are generally audio (or video) files, and they are published using RSS so subscribers are alerted as soon as a new episode is published. Tools such as Audacity and Skype can be used to create and edit podcasts. iTunes is the most popular software to use to subscribe to a podcast feed.
PILLAR 4: Autoresponders
The majority of marketing managers don't know what autoresponders are. And that's a big mistake. Autoresponders have the power to build relationships with your customers when you're busy doing something else. You could be on holiday and come back to find that your customers have placed orders – all because of your autoresponder.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #4 – Autoresponders:• Autoresponders are a great way for you to build relationships with your customers. They can deliver virtually anything by email on an automated, pre-meditated and usually personalized basis.
• Broadcast Emails are informal emails which are usually personalized to the receiver. They are great for sending up-to-date news and building better business relationships. When creating the text for e-mails they should be as personalized and relevant as possible to cement the relationship.
• Newsletters are a more formal, professional method of keeping in touch with your client list and are a great reason for regular communication with your customers. A newsletter can be sent immediately, or pre-loaded into you autoresponder to be delivered on a certain date. They can also be part of an autoresponder sequence, delivered so many days, weeks or months after the initial sign-up.
• One of the autoresponder which I recommend which is specifically built for email marketing is called AWeber. Find links to AWeber and other recommended email marketing resources here:
http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4• Building a list of relevant subscribers is an essential aspect of successful internet marketing, and you can greatly speed this process up by offering free bonus content or a PDF eBook as an incentive for people to subscriber to your newsletter or email updates.
• Having a large, responsive email database will take the onus off relying on search engines for traffic in the future. It’s never good to have total reliance on something that brings in a lot of business which you don’t control.
• By building a thoughtful, relevant autoresponder sequence into your new subscriber process you will be automatically building business brand loyalty without having to speak to your subscribers personally.
• Use autoresponders to survey your subscribers. This is a great way of conducting market research in addition to continuing to grow the quality of your subscriber relationships.
Visit all the resources mentioned in Pillar #4 Autoresponders here: http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar4PILLAR 5: Paid Advertising
Sometimes the only quick way of turning on the flow of website traffic is to pay for it. And that's where pay-per-click, pay-per-impression and sponsored advertising come in. It's important to include paid advertising as part of your internet marketing budget. But only part of it. Ideally you will be spending a lot initially, but not so much after six months of your internet marketing campaign.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #5 – Paid Advertising:• Google AdWords should be your primary initial focus for pay-per-click website traffic. Only when you’ve mastered AdWords should you move onto other services like Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and Facebook Advertising.
• When creating your Google AdWords ad, use square brackets to get an exact match of your keyword phrase. Always test your ads to work out which strategies work best by remembering to take advantage of the Google AdWords A:B split testing functionality.
• It’s incredibly important to optimize your ad landing pages for your pay-perclick adverts. In an ideal world you’ll have a landing page which has been designed with a specific advert in mind.
Major directory submission should also form part of any serious internet marketing campaign. For a list of updated major website directories and other paid internet marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar5.
PILLAR 6: Press ReleasesOne of the secrets to effective internet marketing is to get other people talking about you and your website. And one of the ways to do that is to appeal to specialist publications through the submission of a press release. Press releases don't have to cost anything and all they take is time and planning.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #6 – Press Releases:• Online press releases are a great way of generating awareness and traffic directly to your site. By including a non HTML URL link with http:// you can also improve your off-site search engine optimization as some republishing sites will automatically convert that website mention into a live, SEO friendly link.
• PRWeb is the largest and most popular website for submitting online press releases. Selecting the $80 service should be sufficient for your initial needs; although if you find that it’s successful you should then test the higher-cost services.
• Include a descriptive title for your online press release that includes a keyword phrase.• The first couple of sentences of your press release should be short punchy, provide an overview to your whole story and also include your keyword phrase.
• Always include a call-to-action for journalists as well as your end readers. This could be in the form of additional information or a free related report available at a website address.
• Use Google Alerts to track the success of your press releases. You will be able to view who is publishing your article and you can use this to build direct relationships with publishers for the future. You can also use Google Alerts to test the effectiveness of different online press release distribution services.
• Online press releases aren’t a replacement for conventional PR agencies – they should be viewed as an augmentation of this serviceFor up-to-date links to recommended online press release resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar6.
PILLAR 7: Link Building
The heart of the internet pumps because of links. If websites didn't link to each other, then search engines would find it very difficult to determine which websites belong to any given field. Search engines would also find it very difficult to decide which website is better. The long and short of it is – the more relevant, quality links to your website, the higher your website will be ranked by search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #7 – Link Building:• To achieve good, consistent search engine rankings it is important to get quality links from relevant sites to your website. However, large numbers of non-relevant links pointing to your site can have a negative effect on your search engine rankings.
• Submit your website to free directories, such as local or industry-specific directories. Use DirectoryCritic.com to search for niche industry directories. Both Google Local and Yahoo Local are valuable local directories. DirectoryCritic.com can also be used to find more local directories.
• Researching the links that point to your competitor’s site can be a good way to discover which sites might be willing to link to your site. You can contact these site owners by using contact forms on their website, or using the easywhois.com service.
• Respected institutions such as universities, libraries, or business networks are often willing to link to your site if you’re willing to help them out by giving a free lecture or seminar on your specialized subject. Perhaps you can offer these organizations something else of value in exchange for a link?
• Remember to send a testimonial for any product or service that your business invests in. Send your testimonial to the marketing director and include your website address to make it much more likely to give you a free one-way link.
• Search Google for your keyword phrase plus the phrases ‘add url’ or the phrase ‘add site’ to find websites that are actively looking for link partners. If the site is relevant for your readers then consider arranging a reciprocal link. This offers value as long as if is part of a wider link building campaign, and not the primary focus of the campaign.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date link building resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar7.PILLAR 8: Article Submission
Article submission is still one of the most effective ways to get both readers and search engines interested in your website. By submitting a quality article for publication on the biggest and best (as well as subject specific) article directories, you increase your credibility in your field as well as being given the opportunity to link back to your own website.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #8 – Article Submission:• Start your article marketing by submitting a minimum of one article per week to Ezine Articles. Aim to make your articles between 500 and 800 words long. Include an author bio at the bottom of all your articles which contains a keyword link to your home page, a keyword link to a category page on your site and a non-HTML link to your home page.
• Effective articles are often formatted in the ‘How to…’ and ‘Top 10 ways of…’ doing something. Use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short and remember not to be too formal in your tone of language.
• Think quality and quantity. Quality will help your article to stand out from the competition, and give you a much bigger chance of getting your article republished on other sites. Quantity is important too – this will keep your articles featured on the home pages of the various article directories and start to get you featured as a top author on various sites.
• After you submit articles to top general article directories, offer to submit additional unique articles to other highly respected industry specific websites. This unique content and unique links will drive good quality, relevant traffic from the sites and have an extremely positive effect on your search engine optimization.
• Remember to use Google Alerts to track the republishing of your articles. This will help you to identify sites to which it would be worthwhile to offer unique content to in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date article marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar8.PILLAR 9: Group Interaction
An additional way to become respected in your field is to regularly participate in your industry groups and forums. By answering queries from less experienced people and having a link in your signature in the bottom of each post, again you're taking the opportunity to appeal to both readers and search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #9 – Group Interaction:• Forum Participation can be a great way of building up your reputation in your industry. By posting good quality, relevant posts in a forum (which is relevant for your industry segment) together with using a good signature which links to your site with a keyword phrase, you will be generating direct traffic to your site as well as tremendously helping your search engine rankings.
• Social networking groups such as MySpace and Facebook can help to create awareness of your company. They can be used to promote new products that you are releasing in the future as well as be a good way of allowing people to let their friends know of your business. Just make sure that you initially interact with people by aiming to assist people rather than aiming to sell them something.
• Consider driving people on your email list towards good forum posts that you’ve made. This will encourage interaction and quickly increase your credibility in that forum.
• Answering questions on Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers is another way to increase your credibility. You should post good quality answers on relevant topics. Don’t promote your own business in the answers – aim to drive people to your site from your profile. If your answers are good enough and relevant enough people will want to read your profile.
• Blog comment marketing – posting comments on blogs that are relevant to your business can also help raise your industry awareness and drive traffic to your site. You should aim to select about 10 relevant blogs and subscribe to them. Every time there is a relevant post, make sure you add a valuable comment. They key with making this a success is consistency.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date group interaction (social marketing resources) visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar9.
PILLAR 10: Viral MarketingViral marketing simply means marketing that spreads like a virus – quickly, from peer to peer and often unintentionally from a strategic perspective. You don't necessarily have to think of a world beating viral marketing campaign to take advantage of the power of viral marketing. Just make it a bit easier for people to tell their friends about your service. And try and give them a reason to tell their friends.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #10 – Viral Marketing:• Viral marketing uses word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication to advertise your website.
• Social bookmarking and video marketing are two examples of what you can use to encourage viral marketing to take place.
• Aim to improve your number of returning visitors using social bookmarkingby allowing people to quickly and easily make your site one of their favorites. Try incorporating the AddThis.com tool within your blog.
• Remember to kick-start the popularity of your videos on video sharing sites like YouTube by driving people on your email list to your videos and asking them to add comments.
• Be efficient in the uploading of your videos – make sure that you use the free TubeMogul uploading and tracking service. Don’t just upload your videos to YouTube. There are lots of other sources of video viewers and some sites will convert a lot better than YouTube even though they don’t necessarily bring as many video views.
• Have you included a call-to-action in your videos? Do people know who has uploaded the video and what else they could get from you if they visited your website?
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date viral marketing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar10.PILLAR 11: Visitor Analysis
If you don't know where your visitors live, how they're finding your website and what they're doing when they're on your website, then how do you know what to improve about your website? Visitor analysis is key to gaining the knowledge that helps you make informed decisions on your future website strategy.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #11 – Visitor Analysis:• Using Google Analytics you can track many vital visitor statistics like where your visitors come from and how long they stay. You can then use this valuable information to find weak spots in your website like improving important conversion rates.
• Once you have identified your weak spots or discovered a blockage on the site you can amend your website to improve your conversion rates. This is probably something that your competitors aren’t doing.
• You can track the sources of traffic to your site, and more specifically which websites your visitors are coming from, as well as keyword phrases used in search engines to find your site. You can use this to help you determine which keyword phrases to focus on in the future for your SEO.
• Remember that it’s imperative to set goals for your site – and give them a monetary value.• Make sure you test what your website looks like and performs like on different browsers – this includes mobile phone browsers.
• Don’t delay on getting your visitor tracking set up – unless you set it up now, you won’t have any comparable historical data to analyze in the future.
• Use Google Analytics to help you pinpoint the most valuable sources of traffic to your site – you might be able to make a decision that you can afford to pay more for traffic from certain sources if you can justify it.
• How can you justify any future marketing spend unless you track its performance. Online marketing is unique – the majority of it is entirely trackable and therefore justifiable.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date visitor analysis resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar11.PILLAR 12: Continuous Content
Search engines love new content on your website. It shows them that your information isn't out of date and that you're trying to offer the best possible service to your readers. If you haven't updated your website for a year or so then you're always going to find it more difficult to get higher rankings from search engines.
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #12 – Continuous Content:• If ‘Linking is Queen, Content is King’ – links tell search engines that you are important, but search engines are less likely to rank you highly unless you have good content.
• Continuous new content on your site is so important. It needs to be updated as often as possible. Search engines love new content as a website with fresh content is more likely to be the most up-to-date in its industry.
• Fresh information = more relevance.• Great new content encourages natural, organic link building.
• Remember to integrate blog technology for ease uploading and effective distribution. If you are using WordPress then you can pre-set your blog to release blog posts on certain dates in the future.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date continuous content related and outsourcing resources visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar12.
PILLAR 13: The Evolving WebThe internet never stays the same. That means that if you continue to use the same online marketing channels, and never re-analyze the marketplace, you'll slowly lose your marketshare. Whenever you see a new website ask yourself two questions – firstly, is there anything that I can learn from the way that they do business? And secondly, can I use their website as a marketing medium?
Here’s a bullet-point summary of Pillar #13 – The Evolving Web:• Web 1.0 is represented by a one-way communications process. Web 1.0 marketing opportunities are therefore more like traditional advertising opportunities, including things like submitting your website to directories, submitting online press releases and article marketing.
• Web 2.0 represents the interactive web and marketing therefore started to recognize the importance of interacting in a community and encouraging more interaction, joining social networking groups, forming your own groups and thinking about the seeding of a viral marketing campaign.
• Web 3.0 represents the future. It doesn’t necessarily exist yet, but I call it the personalized web. Marketing tools for Web 3.0 could include virtual reality marketing and something I call MyPageMarketing – providing useful interaction from within someone’s personalized home page or personal profile on a social networking site.
• The Evolving Web means you can never assume you know everything about Internet marketing. Internet marketing techniques can change quickly. If you feel that you’re up-to-date with things now, unless you continue to study more material (like the 26-Week Internet Marketing Plan –
www.26weekplan.com) you’ll very quickly find your knowledge to be out-ofdate.• Think laterally of how new opportunities in Web 3.0 could impact your business. You should test new methods of marketing and ensure you find ways to track your success when using those new forms of marketing. Never stand still.
For links to the various websites mentioned in this pillar and up-to-date links that relate to the Evolving Web (the future of internet marketing) visit http://www.13pillars.com/resources/pillar13.