As a sail catches the wind, your web strategies aim to catch visitors, or traffic.

And, just as the angle, or presentation of the sail to the wind gives speed to the boat, it is the presentation of your Brand that will direct your visitors to take action – and give momentum to your internet marketing results.

It’s all about Traffic and Conversions – but how do you get there?

If you set sail from Newfoundland, you already know that you must pass Nova Scotia and New York, and a lot of other places, before you can get to Jacksonville, Florida.

But the path from here to there in the ‘Internet Marketing World’ may be unclear – and the path may appear very different, depending on which expert you speak with.

However, all the marketing strategies you may hear, seem to have three common themes;

The First Common Theme – Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization is built-in with Wordpress; and completed as you post to your blog.

If you set up with the correct Wordpress Plugins, you can forget about SEO – just write for your readers, not the search engines. Your Wordpress setup takes care of the technical SEO details.

In other words, SEO is pretty much automatic. Pick just one or two phrases from your list of ideal keyword phrases and then write your content for your readers.

Simply tag your posts – and you’ve completed your work for the search engines.

The Second Common Theme – Social Media

A boomerang only comes back if you throw it.

The Social Bookmarking and Social Networking Sites CAN have a tremendous impact on your business.

Get familiar with Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg – they each take a little practice – start with a small list of friends – be selective. Make mistakes on a small scale.

Remember: There is no need to provide any more information about yourself than what is already available on the Contact Us page of your website. You can adjust your privacy levels to suit your comfort. Start today.

The MAIN Common Marketing Theme

Building Subscribers.  It’s about providing great content on a specific topic – and getting the word out that you provide it. 

If you are technical, or a business owner, you may be interested in reviewing my simple strategy of Syndicating your RSS Feed to create the Echo Effect of Social Bookmarking.

Unfurl The Sails

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The Internet Is Changing and most of us have web pages.

The web pages started out as a static brochure. They didn’t change very often. So what happened is somebody would go on your website, then they go on your website a month later – it’s the same thing, a month later it’s the same thing, a month later… a year later… it’s the same thing, it’s the same pictures – nothing was changing. It’s like you had the guy your brochure and he just keeps pulling it out of the cupboard and keeps looking at it.

What’s happened with the internet over time is now what is referred to as Web 2.0 which is more interactive. People go on the internet to find new stuff. so they go on to read newspapers – it changes every day, they go on to find stock quotes – it changes in minute by minute. Blogging has become one component of that, where you can change it every day – it takes very little effort, but it gives somebody a reason to come back to your website.

It’s like imagining being able to talk to your guests, every single day, for zero cost. And you’re copying their schedule and it doesn’t interrupt your schedule. You know, why not? That’s what blogging is all about.

If you have questions, just pop up a hand… there’s no bad questions, I may give you a bad answer… but there’s no bad questions. I’ll do my best… If I know the answer, you’ll get it right away, if I don’t know the answer, I’ll take a second, I’ll think of something – I don’t know if it’s true or not but I’ll try anyway.

Definition – What is a Blog?

Essentially it’s a contraction of weB LOG, so you take the ‘B’ and the ‘LOG’ and it’s BLOG. It’s a journal, like a diary that you put out. It’s interactive and it’s available on the internet.

Ok, someone who does the work of ‘blogging’ – is a ‘blogger’. And when you’re a ‘blogger’, your ‘blogging’. That’s the actual doing… so if you hear those terms it all has to do with the fact that the blog is the little diary and blogging is putting it up; blogger is what you are as you do it.

One thing about blogs is that they’re just about always arraigned in chronological order with the newest being first. So you end up with a whole bunch go down the row and as they get older they fall off into an archive, however there’s still readily available. And we do have our blog over here, after you can take a look at it, Karen’s got it up on our computer.

Next: Why Would You Want To Blog?

…more on Ignace Outposts

The Internet Is Changing

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Brad Greaves of Ignace Outposts gave a fantastic talk at the NOTO 2008 Conference;

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool.

I was given permission to record and broadcast the presentation.

…and Brad’s presentation was packed full of useful tips on Blogging for Camp Owners. The hour-long presentation was filled with fresh, personal examples of how Blogging has helped him stay connected with his Fly in Fishing Outpost Cabin Guests; Brad explains how your tourism internet marketing can benefit from blogging.

And Brad explains it without cluttering your tourism marketing objectives with technical details.

A Timely, Important Message

Brad’s message is so timely and important, that I’ve taken seven hours to transcribe everything he said – so I can share it with you!!

Not only did I learn a great deal about what a Camp Owner wants their blog to do for them, but I also learned a great deal about how to speak about the benefits of internet marketing and blogging, rather than speaking about the technology… a chronic challenge of mine.

Put Good Advice Into Action

I’m following Brad’s Blogging advice.
I learned a lot from him, and I know you will too.

Watch for my new series of several short blog posts to share Brad’s Presentation with my readers and Tourism clients over the next couple weeks. My newsletter subscribers will also gain exclusive access to the full transcript in one pdf document!

Three cheers Brad!

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool

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Does it matter if I set my privacy settings so only freinds view my profile?

Here’s my reply:

Keep your privacy settings to Everyone, and just keep business detail available on your profile.

I go on to explain:

Think of Facebook as just another piece of Internet Real Estate – just like your website, only in a different city.

As you set up each social media profile, include as much of the content from your website as you can – in a well-presented format – with the intent to always lead your visitors to take action and become a Friend, Fan, or Blog Subscriber so you can contact them (and their friend’s) again.

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Check out this example

http://twitter.com/secretIMriches

The background image has a call-to-action that builds the friend list!
Genius!

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After you Follow this profile, (Trust Step One)

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you receive a direct message with the invitation to get your gift. You click,
(Trust Step Two)

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Split Test Conversions
…and you hit a simple, uncluttered landing page with an eye-catching layout (split-tested between several variations to find the most effective) that directs you to leave your email and name to receive the free gift…
(Trust Step Three)

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Tip for subscribers:

When you leave your email address, give yourself a special name. I named myself IM-Doug. This way I’ll instantly know when I start getting his auto-responder series of email that starts walking me through a relationship with his product or service…
(Trust Step Four)

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No Ongoing Support

I’m also certain that the pre-writen series of email are pre-timed to be sent at regular intervals after I sign up, requiring no ongoing work from the business owner.

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Bring Them Back – Engage Them

Within these email, the business owner shares the benefits of their product or the solution they offer, and asks open ended questions and request for your reply on Twitter, or on his Blog.
(Trust Step Five)

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In review:

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Once a Fan, Follower, Subscriber etc, surpass Trust Step Five – they are certainly worth staff time and ongoing follow-up to learn about them as an individual.

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One Example

This is just one quick example of how to use social media to start building relationships with people who are interested in what you offer.

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Measureable Marketing Results:
• This simple Five Steps to Customer Trust can produce some fantastic results because each step is clearly identified and the actions produce measureable marketing results.

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Improving Processes

Each time I find great, professional examples of people doing Internet Marketing right, I improve my own processes. Thank you @SecretIMRiches.

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Follow @douglaslampi
for Tourism Internet Marketing Twitter updates.

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Five Steps to Customer Trust Using Social Media

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