Guerrilla eMarketing

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Guerrilla eMarketing

• Stephan Spencer
• President, Internet Concepts
• sspencer_at_netconcepts.com
• www.netconcepts.com

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These Are Interesting Times
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I Hate To Burst Your Bubble, But

• Leading analysts predict that market valuations
  will not return to previous, unreasonable levels
• Focus must now be on profitability and making the
  cash reserves last
• The Solution? Develop e-marketing strategies that
  are low-cost and high-return

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eMarketing Strategies That Wont Burn Through All
Your Cash

• Email marketing
• Viral marketing
• Link building
• Search engine optimization
• Pay-for-performance advertising (affiliate
  programs)
• Content distribution

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Email Marketing

• No spamming!
• Opt-in, not opt-out (get consumers consent!)
• Read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
• Deliver value
• newsletters, reminders, announcements, greeting
  cards, incentives, special offers
• Segment your market
• Test test test!

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More Tips on Email

• Publish and abide by a strict privacy policy
• Make it short sweet - use links
• Monitor number/variety of contacts
• Avoid burnout (frequency expectations)
• Provide an easy way to unsubscribe
• Avoid use of purchased lists
• Be sure reply works
• Have it signed by a real person

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Viral Marketing

• Word of mouth marketing
• Make it compelling for consumers to refer their
  friends
• to purchase your products, visit your site, sign
  up for a free trial, subscribe to your
  newsletter, etc.
• Read Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin and
  The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Examples HOTorNOT.com, Quixtar, Paypal, Vindigo

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Search Engines

• The search engines periodically explore and
  index your web site
• You need to make sure they know your site exists
• Optimize your pages every page has a song
• Create new content write for search engines as
  much as for people

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Search Engines

• Pick the right keywords to target
• Overture will give you relative search popularity
  http//inventory.overture.com
• Ex hair color 16000, hair coloring 4100,
  colorant 150
• Keywords placed in title tags, hyperlink text,
  headline text, and high in the body copy are
  given more weight
• Title tags are critical

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Search Engines

• Meta tags are not a magic bullet
• Frames and dynamic pages (i.e. pages w/ ? or
  in the URL) kill rankings
• Monitor your rankings over time, as they will
  change
• Pay to play bid on keywords at Overture.com
• Learn more at SearchEngineWatch.com

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Directories

• Directories are lists of sites organized by
  topic, usually editorially reviewed
• Different from a Search Engine
• When submitting your site, include relevant
  keywords in your site name description
• Dont forget niche sites!

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Directories

• Submit your site
• Yahoo! 299
• LookSmart 0.15/click (partners Excite,
  Altavista, MSN Search)
• Open Directory (www.dmoz.org) free (partners
  AOL, Lycos, Netscape, Hotbot, Altavista, Google)

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Link Building

• Link popularity affects search engine rankings
• Links from popular sites (like Yahoo!) have more
  impact on your rankings
• Check your link popularity at www.marketleap.com/p
  ublinkpop
• Check your PageRank with the Google Toolbar
  (download it from toolbar.google.com)
• Read Eric Wards ClickZ column on Building Links
  at www.clickz.com/column/bl.html

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Affiliate Programs

• Pay For Performance / Revenue sharing
• Amazon.com blazed the trail with their
  Associates Program
• Many affiliate programs listed at Refer-it.com
• Read The Complete Insiders Guide To Associate
  Affiliate Programs www.linkstosales.com
• LinkShare, BeFree, Commission Junction..

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Content Distribution

• Take your best nuggets from your site and
  disseminate them elsewhere on the Web
• Microsites
• Example www.women.com/beautifulyou/
• Sponsored content
• Business2.0 article business2.com/content/magazine
  /marketing/2000/09/29/19075
• Transactive banners
• Example www.bluestreak.com/gillette.html

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In Summary

• Dont fritter your money away on expensive portal
  deals, celebrity web events, launch parties, etc.
• Drive traffic, and SALES, cost effectively with
  email, word of mouth, links, search engines,
  affiliate programs, and microsites

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Questions?

• Feel free to email me at sspencer_at_netconcepts.com
• Thank you!