The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Online marketing and communications tools are in constant flux. Often, this makes competing in today’s marketplace feel overwhelming. And just listing your services on a web page, hoping someone picks your business over the competition, is mostly ineffective. The good news is that it’s easier than ever before to market effectively. Easier and much less expensive. But you need a plan … an online marketing strategy for how to connect with your buyers and constituents on the Internet.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR, by David Meerman Scott, is a great resource for developing and implementing an online marketing strategy. With the focus on buyer needs (not what you sell), Scott explains how to use numerous online tools and strategies to share your expertise with potential clients. This can help establish a relationship, build trust, and lead to new sales.
The first step is to identify your target audience or buyer personas 
. During this process, you learn to focus on your buyers’ goals and aspirations. What problems do they face? How can you solve these problems? The strength of this approach is that your marketing becomes less about you and all about your buyer.
After you determine your online audience, the best way to reach out and connect is through the use of blogs , published white papers, and other freely shared content. Every day your buyers go online to find solutions to problems. Your opportunity is to solve these problems by publishing “how to” videos, “top ten” solutions lists, answers to “frequently asked questions,” and more. And by sharing your expertise, you can build trust before any one has even talked about costs! In this way you convince your buyers that you are the trusted source they can turn to again and again.
Many business professionals are well aware of the power of online outreach, but fear they don’t have enough time in their already-busy schedules to maintain a blog, a Twitter feed, or a Facebook page. Even worse, they fear that by increasing online visibility, people will say bad things about their business and leave nasty comments—a very real concern.
But whether you maintain an online presence or not, your customers are already telling others what they think. What’s important to realize is that online forums and other social media may give buyers an easy way to share their negative comments, but it also gives business owners an opportunity to respond to that feedback and show customers that you’re listening, you “feel their pain,” and you want to do something about it.
I heartily recommend the New Rules—it’s been a great resource for my business. Consider getting a copy and let me know if you’ve had success with it too.
4 Comments for this entry
Meredith Dittmar
Thanks, David! Your book outlines so many avenues for connecting online–it can be daunting to know where to start. But the challenge is thrilling, compelling, and self-empowering. Last fall I urged a property management marketing specialist to purchase your book (which she did) and we just last week published a WordPress website for her company. With their brand-new platform for blogging in place, my client and her team are very excited to put your ideas into practice!
Dhanunjaya
There are various types of ailffiate marketing techniques to make money, but the most common way is to join a company’s ailffiate program and start getting people to go to their website through link you may have on either a basic website, blog, or social media site etc The links that you provide for people click on to go to an ailffiate company’s site tell the ailffiate vendor’s what web site sent them the customer and will track how much commission the ailffiate marketer will get (which usually based on sales) and will send payment to the ailffiate who directed the customer to them.Many ailffiates who are profitable at this business will use their websites to harvest emails legitimately first. They do this by providing good content on their sites that readers are interested in. They then will ask for an email address to which they might send a free e-book, have a newsletter to subscribe too, or perhaps have a very educational video that can be watched. Many good marketers will then send good legitimate content to their potential customers that is useful to them, then soft sell sell them a product that will give them a commission for sending their buyer to the seller’s site.The Super Basic Steps of Affiliate marketing in 5 steps:1. Put up a website2. Sign up for an ailffiate program that you feel has products that you have the ability to promote well3. Add the ailffiate links that are provided from the ailffiate program you signed up with to your website.4. Continuously work to Optimize your site to be found in the major search engines and get visitors5. Find more products and keep promoting and building your siteAffiliate marketing is a REAL business. If you take it seriously and work hard at it, I honestly feel anyone can succeed. It’s hard work, but well worth it. I heard that 99% who attempt internet business of people never make any money, and it’s mostly because they quit too soon.There are many books you can get at local libraries that can get you educated on the subject. I recommend watching YouTube videos by lisa3876, my wife says she was the easiest for her to understand the concepts and really excited her to try and get started.By the way, when doing your research, be warned that ailffiate marketing educational websites are usually trying to sell you something and can be VERY persuasive. Try not to buy anything if you can help it unless you are 100% ready to proceed and the seller has a minimum of a 30 day return policy so you have ample time to really review it. I’ve spent thousands on my education to build my ailffiate business and can tell you that if you work at it consistently, it can be done.Good luck!
David Meerman Scott
Meredith – thanks so much for reviewing my book. Good luck to you and your clients in implementing the ideas.