The biggest secret in online marketing

First things first

You probably want to find out what the secret is, right? I am sorry to disappoint you, but there is no secret. Well there is, sorta. If you decide to read on I promise to help you make all your future online marketing campaigns much more effective.
 

The secret

The secret I am about to tell you is as obvious as it can be, but surprisingly very few people actually realize it. What I am talking about is providing value to potential clients, visitors, fans and so on. Not a day goes by without me hearing about some social media event, guru or article about how Facebook will change everything. Search engine optimizers are seeking fast ways to get #1 position for a certain keyword, while companies try to get millions of fans on their Facebook fan page. All in the hope that it will bring in more money. There is nothing wrong with wanting to run a profitable business, nor there is anything wrong with search engine optimization. What I have something against is the desire for a ”quick fix”.

If you want to be successful in your online marketing efforts (or marketing in general), think long and hard about what can you bring to the table. What value are you providing to your visitors, fans and clients?

Mental experiment

B2B

Most companies have a website that consists of following: ”about us”, ”products/services” and ”news”. Let’s imagine that there is a B2B company whose website is like that. Let’s also assume they are selling ”widgets” to businesses. Their website features professionally taken photos of their widgets along with specifications and many different ways to purchase one from them.

What value are they trying to provide to website visitors beyond just listing their products? Very little, is the answer. They could try and optimize their site for relevant keywords and spend thousands on AdWords, but in the end it would be pretty ineffective and/or expensive.

Now imagine if they had a blog. I know, you’re about to roll your eyes, thinking: ”why would there be a blog?”. What if this company had a blog in which they covered their industry, including not only their products, but also focusing on competition, events and so on. They could even do video interviews with their clients, partners and competitors. Together with others they could publish a whitepaper covering subjects that visitors would find interesting.

Think how much easier it would be to market this kind of company online. The side effects would be wonderful:

• Backlinks from people linking to blog posts,
• Something to send in that monthly newsletter,
• Content to increase leverage on professional social media networks like LinkedIn,
• Better search engine ranking for relevant keywords,
• More traffic in general,
• A way to show off the company’s expertise in the field.

All that at the price of a few posts a month.

What if we take this even further and go ”crazy”. The company could host a webinar using something like GoToWebinar together with other companies to all clients and potential clients. During this webinar they could share as much useful information as possible without even trying to sell their own services. The webinar could be recorded and placed on YouTube for increased online exposure and to allow others to watch it on demand. Slides, on the other hand, could be uploaded to SlideShare.

Since we’re riding the crazy train we might as well take it even further. They could organize an offline event where industry experts come together to give talks on the subject. The event could have a separate brand, but the company in question would be the main organizer. The event could bring a lot of visibility to the company off- and online.

All the methods described above require effort, but then again anything worth doing requires effort.

B2C

One of the latest trends in B2C online marketing is getting as much Facebook fans on the company’s fan page. There is even an underground business selling and buying Facebook fans. My question is ”what are you providing to your Facebook fans and how do you make them feel special?”. If your Facebook fan page’s wall is full of links to your site or, even worse, it’s just empty, then you’re doing it wrong.

What if you offered Facebook fans exclusive discounts, ran monthly contests (some disagree) and provided support to people who buy or want to buy your product?

If a restaurant owner wanted to boost his sales a little he could print a small Foursquare batch saying that anyone who checks in could get a free desert with their lunch and mayor receives one free lunch per month. To Facebook fans the restaurant could offer ”tasting” events where they have an opportunity to taste a new menu for a heavily discounted price as long as they bring a friend and are fans on Facebook.

How we do it

Below are some of the methods we use to bring value to our clients, visitors and fans. On Facebook we try and share online marketing tips and tricks. On Twitter we do the same, as well as share AdWords coupon codes worth 100$. What you’re reading now is our way of bringing you value in terms of interesting (hopefully) and useful information. We also do public speaking, which delivers value to people offline as well as generating assets for us to use online (slides etc).

We’re far from perfect and there is a very long way to go, but we’ll try to keep bringing value to more and more people for as long as we can.

Long story short

This post might be more of a rant, but I hope it makes you rethink the way you market online. By bringing value first you will build long lasting relationships where both parties benefit. Online marketing methods like pay-per-click advertisements, Facebook pages, search engine optimization and so on are just ways of bringing value to people more efficiently and to as many people as possible.

When you bring value things happen naturally. Search engines try to provide value to their users so if your website provides value then people will naturally link to it, talk about it and so on. Which will make search engines take notice. Without value it will be so much harder for you to attract visitors.

Don’t be one of those boring companies whose online marketing efforts are all ”buy buy buy”. Try to offer something first before asking for anything.

Do you have any thoughts on the subject? If so please leave a comment below