Guerrilla eMarketing Stephan Spencer President, Internet Concepts

These Are Interesting Times… Is this you???

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

eMarketing Strategies That Won’t Burn Through All Your Cash marketing Viral marketing Link building Search engine optimization Pay-for-performance advertising (affiliate programs) Content distribution

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

More Tips on Publish and abide by a strict privacy policyPublish and abide by a strict privacy policy Make it short & sweet - use linksMake it short & sweet - use links Monitor number/variety of contactsMonitor number/variety of contacts Avoid burnout (frequency expectations)Avoid burnout (frequency expectations) Provide an easy way to unsubscribeProvide an easy way to unsubscribe Avoid use of purchased listsAvoid use of purchased lists Be sure reply worksBe sure reply works Have it signed by a real personHave it signed by a real person

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

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

Search Engines Pick the right keywords to target –Overture will give you relative search popularity –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

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

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 Don’t forget niche sites!

Directories Submit your site: – Yahoo! $299 –LookSmart $0.15/click (partners: Excite, Altavista, MSN Search) –Open Directory ( free (partners: AOL, Lycos, Netscape, Hotbot, Altavista, Google)

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 Check your “PageRank” with the Google Toolbar (download it from toolbar.google.com) Read Eric Ward’s ClickZ column on Building Links at

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 Insider’s Guide To Associate & Affiliate Programs LinkShare, BeFree, Commission Junction..

Content Distribution Take your best “nuggets” from your site and disseminate them elsewhere on the Web “Microsites” –Example: Sponsored content –Business2.0 article business2.com/content/magazine/marketing/2000/09/29/19075 Transactive banners –Example:

In Summary Don’t fritter your money away on expensive portal deals, celebrity web events, launch parties, etc. Drive traffic, and SALES, cost effectively with , word of mouth, links, search engines, affiliate programs, and microsites

Questions? Feel free to me at Thank you!