2010 has come and gone and even now many online marketers and web designers are still ignoring the importance of adapting their websites for other languages and cultures. While English was still the number one language on the Web in 2010 with 536.6 million users viewing pages in English, Chinese is closing in with 444.9 million users.

This means that there are almost the same number of Chinese users as there are English and if your website is in the business of selling, then you are missing out on a potential 78% of internet users if you only provide an English version of your site.

We explore some of the main areas you need to consider when creating and optimizing your site for a multi-lingual audience.

Keyword Research

One of the most common pitfalls of localizing your website into another language is not spending enough time researching language specific keywords. Simply translating your English keywords is a step on the road to failure. The classic example Google Translate gives for ‘car insuránce’ in French is ‘l’assurance automobile.’ While this is an accurate translation French users will more than likely not use this keyword at all and type something along the lines of ‘assurance voiture.’

Foreign language keyword research should be approached in more or less the same way that English keyword research is achieved by using a native speaking professional translator who is able to brainstorm for synonyms and the most commonly used search terms for that country.

TLD vs. Sub Domain

This age old debate nevér fails to arise on discussions of multi-lingual websites. Is it better to use a country code top level domain (ccTLD) or a sub domain of your main domain?

Both choices have their ups and downs. For instance, using a ccTLD such as www.yourdomain.it may make your site look slightly more authoritative in Italy to local search engines and visitors than a .com/.net address, although there is much debate as to whether this is truly the case.

Using ccTLD’s is useful if you are looking to target countries or regions, but don’t get caught in the trap if you simply want to provide alternative languages for your site. There are many countries that speak the same language. You wouldn’t really want your Spanish .es site serving your South American visitors would you? Add in the cost of some ccTLD’s, maintainability issues of separate domains and hosting and you have to ask yourself if you are targeting a specific language or a specific country.

The alternative is to use a sub domain of your main domain such as www.it.yourdomain.com or even www.yourdomain.com/it. This method is more practical if you are looking to provide alternative translations of your content but are not solely focused on selling products or services in a specific country or region.

Cross-Cultural Content

It’s not only keywords that need to be researched and managed; content also needs to be properly localized for each language. A common mistake is to poorly translate English content or have content machine translated on the fly.

Content should be properly localized for individual cultures and that doesn’t just mean getting your content translated. Different cultures prefer different styles. You could get away with an informal, almost ‘chatty,’ tone when writing for a UK audience. But try this for a German audience and visitors will more than likely be put off by your lack of professionalism since they prefer a more corporate, to the point, efficient tone.

You should get to know your target audiences and what their preferences are. Use analytics and statistics to evaluate your landing pages and content. How long are your visitors staying on a page? How high is your bounce rate?

Successful multi-lingual content is a mix of many different things, including SEO, and can take numerous trial and error attempts to get right. So research, refine, and re-write!

Translation Management

Management of your translated content also needs careful consideration. What happens when you alter your English pages? Do you leave your other language pages as they are or have them translated again?

There are efficient ways of working with translated content such as the open source GNU gettext framework which allows your translators to work from easy to use .po files. We will be exploring this method further in a future article. There are also numerous methods for popular blog platforms to manage translations.

Analytics, Analytics & Analytics

Google Analytics shouldn’t ever be ignored. First you should make sure you have a separate account for each domain or sub domain you have running. This will help to segment and breakdown the analysis of each site and enable you to draw conclusions on how each country or language version is performing and where to improve.

I get this question all the time from clients and people I work with. “Derek, what exactly is SEO, why do I need it and how does it work. More importantly, what specifically do I need to do about SEO?”

Well, let me explain it in very simple and easy to understand language so you can incorporate the right SEO strategy online for your business that will help you authentically build your list and get more clients.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Simply put, SEO is the process of optimizing your website by improving the internal (behind-the-scenes web techy stuff) and the external (web content, pages, images, etc.) setup in order to increase traffic to your site from search engines like Google.

Why does my website need SEO?

The big commercial search engines – Google, Bing, AOL and Yahoo, drive a lot of web traffic. If your site cannot be easily found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their database, you miss out on an incredible opportunity available to websites who appear in the search engine results for the keywords you want to be associated with. As a result, less people who want to have what you have will be visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all people online.

How does SEO work?

Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain terms and phrases best suited to your site, carry huge value. These “keywords” dictate what sites the search engines deem worthy of appearing in the results. To do that, search engines really have four main functions – crawling, building an index, determining relevancy & rankings and providing results. Crawling and indexing the zillions of documents, pages, files, news, videos and media on the Internet – and – providing answers to user search queries, through lists of relevant sites / pages via search results and rankings.

What do I do about SEO?

It comes down to doing what I call the ABC’s of SEO.

A is for Architecture

The architecture of your site is critical for SEO success. And, I don’t mean having tons of funky widgets and menu options on your site with flashy design or cool features. Your site needs to have the right framework – like a solid design and well-implemented architecture (i.e. like a house) to support the content and links within the site.

Think of the site like a house where the rooms, stairs and other internal parts of the house require a solid foundation – floors, walls, wiring, mechanics, etc. Without a solid internal architecture, the house (i.e. your site) won’t support it. Equally as important is the external architecture of the house to support the roof, siding, doors, windows, etc. The architecture matters on both the inside and outside.

B is for Back links

The more your site and individual pages are referenced by other sites – the more “back links” you have and the more the search engines will favor your site. It’s basically like other sites giving your site the “thumbs up” indicating they recommend or endorse your site.

One of the best ways to get back links is by submitting your articles to article directory sites. As a result, the search engines will “listen” to their recommendations based on the articles submitted on their site and linking back to your site and content. (Tip – always have a call to action at the end of your article to refer people back to your site so they can opt-in to your list!)

C is for Content

Any site won’t really amount for much in terms of SEO unless it provides good content. The content has to be keyword “rich” for the search terms you want to appear for and be extremely relevant and valuable for your visitors. Be sure to include the keyword terms and phrases in your content that would be relevant and valuable for your visitors.

For example, if you portray your site to be all about “skiing” in terms of the URL, site name and page names, etc. and you only talk about “underwater basket weaving” and nothing about skiing, people will click on your site and then click away. This tells the search engines your site is not providing useful content or relevant information for what it portrays to be providing. You have to provide high-content and high-value information using very useful and authentic content.

Follow these ABC’s of SEO and you’ll be on your way to improving the rankings of your site in the search engines and as a result – improving your authentic online marketing to build your list and get more clients!

Until next time… Learn It, Love It, Live It!

Your Assignment:

Follow my model of the ABC’s of SEO to review what’s in place for your site.

[A - Architecture] Do you have a solid architecture in place for your website with the right menu items, images and content? If you’re using a stand-alone website, can you easily change it and update the content with new and fresh information?

[B - Back links] I’m a huge believer in a solid article marketing strategy to ensure your high-quality and high-content articles are being distributed and picked up by high-profile article directories which the search engines love. Follow my recommendations for some of the article marketing sites above and ensure you have a call-to-action in each of your articles.

[C - Content] You’ve got to put out really excellent content – nothing else. Make sure you’re giving as much as possible in the content you’re putting out – don’t hold back or think you’re giving away too much. I’m a firm believer the better the free content you provide, the better potential clients you will receive.

Remember that kid from high school, you know the one who really didn’t know how to socialize with others. He may have been home-schooled or secluded for the first 16 years of his/her life and as a result was socially challenged? You know what I mean? They would make inappropriate comments, add irrelevant content to a conversation, or just try to impress you with how smart they were by using grammar most people in college would not understand let alone a bunch of high school kids. We often refer to these types of people as, “socially challenged.” The question I have for you is: Are you socially challenged in your social media marketing?

The main reason that people become socially challenged is that they did not have the chance to experiment and see what social aspects are acceptable and which are not, what actions gained friends and what actions gained enemies, what actions got praise and which got ridicule, frankly how to not only be social but be socially acceptable.

The problem I continue to see is that with the advent of the Social Media Age and the potential power of social media, people are jumping in without understanding the rules of the play ground and have thus become social media challenged in an arena that focuses on being socially acceptable. The following is a short list to help you be more social. Think of this as the beginners guide to being social.

1 – Be Social

It is important that you are not only posting content about whatever your subject matter is, but that you are also reading and commenting on others content. There are some obvious reasons to do this, such as building links back to your site, but it is even more important that you are being social. The most important thing to remember here is that you are READING the content. Your goal should be to try and understand what the blogger is saying, then make a thoughtful and intelligent comment. Whether you agree or disagree make sure you add to the conversation. Here are some good and bad examples:

“Good Job, loved the content, keep it coming ;0)”

This is a terrible comment. It is idle praise you can save for your dog. Don’t do it on blog comments.

“Fantastic analysis of the internal propagation for insightful analysis of verbal and written interaction in a cacophony of media.”

What? Are you serious? Quit trying to impress us with how smart you are. You have offended most of the readers and all you have proven is that your are socially challenged.

“I agree that it is important to make comments on other content, but remember that you need to make comments on content that is relevant to you and what you do. It doesn’t do any good to comment on a blog about bikini’s if you are trying to sell stoves.”

Great comment. Although I don’t necessarily agree, it is an intelligent comment that adds to the conversation.

Hopefully you are starting to get the picture of what is acceptable and what is not. Remember we really are trying to be social and we want to learn from others comments that hopefully add to the conversation and get people interested in what we do and what we think. We are really looking for friends and the more friends you have the easier it is to be social.

2 – Write Yóur Own Content About Another Person

No I’m not talking about plagiarism, I’m talking about the biggest form of flattery. That’s right, if you read something that really made sense to you, share it with others. People who are taking the time to put content on the internet are excited to know that somebody read it, commented and then shared with others (just make sure you are giving credít where credít is due). Think about this from a social aspect, when people are talking they always say “well ________ said ________,” “I heard ________ say ________,” “Did you hear that ________ thinks ________?” This not only adds credibility to your conversation, but also gets the original person interested in what you are saying.

3 – Don’t Push People Down the Slide

There are a lot of people who write content that may not have been completely thought out (I’m guilty of this more than once a week), but it does not help the situation if you are the bully at the top of the playground pushing everybody down the slide. Not only is this not socially acceptable it’s just mean! Remember no one likes the bully, but most people like the guy/gal who has an opinion and is willing to help others.

In a meeting several years ago, one of my young loan officers was supposed to be giving a lesson on the Real Estate Purchase Contract or REPC. The young man had obviously not prepared for the presentation when he stood up and told us he would be teaching us about the REPC, turned to the white board and wrote in large block print “RUPC.” Most of the veteran loan officers started giggling at this obvious spelling faux pas, but one loan officer quickly commented, “Sorry James I told you the wrong spelling, it is actually REPC, which is a short abbreviation for Real Estate Purchase Contract.” It was obvious to all of us that the senior loan officer had not said anything to James, but he set the mood for a respectful conversation and diverted the ridicule from a young loan officer to one whom no one would ridicule.

4 – Become the Expert

In the world of social media there are thousands of pieces of content written daily, but only a handful of people are commenting. A recent study suggested that of all the comments that are being written 90% of them are written by the same 10% of people. Not only will you be learning how to be social (frankly the more you do it the better you will get at it), but you will soon be recognized as an expert in your field. You need to set down some specific times of the day to make sure you are researching for new content and posting comments on the content that is relevant to you and your product or service. Start by looking for the most influential people in your arena, but don’t forget to keep looking for new and fresh content.

5 – Invite a Friend Over

One of the first things we learned as young people is that you can learn a lot from a person if you invite them over to play or have dinner. You can do the same thing for your blog and content. Not only does it help you to establish better relationships and really be social, but it also exposes your content to a larger audience. By having a guest blogger you not only expose your product/service to your clients, but also the guest blogger’s clients as well.

At the end of the day you need to look at your social media as just that; being social, not just trying to sell product and services. People purchase from people. They like to know who you are and the more they know about you and your expertise they more likely they are to not only purchase from you but stay with you and refer others to you.

Sometimes sites like Demand Studios, Yahoo’s Associated Content, AOL’s Seed.com, and Suite101 are called names like “content farms” or “content mills”. You can call them whatever you like, but the fact of the matter is that they’re attracting a lot of writers and producing a lot of content, which is appearing in a lot of search results for better or worse. WebProNews had a conversation with Suite101 CEO Peter Berger (who has said Suite101 is not a content farm, by the way) about this industry, how people are interacting with content in different markets, search vs. social media, and more.

“Search might never be flawless, but it is the superior angle to access the web’s best content for any question a consumer or information seeker has at a given point in time,” Berger tells us.

Sites like Suite101, and those from the others mentioned are largely about “evergreen content” – content that doesn’t lose its usefulness over time. This content tends to cater more to search than to social media, because it often sets out to solve problems users are actively looking to solve, which isn’t necessarily going to be the kind of content they want all their friends to see. Still, social has its place for this kind of content in addition to the more share-friendly stuff.

“The ongoing development of social media is certainly one of the most significant developments we are seeing on the web right now: the social web is creating incremental opportunities beyond purely search- or destination-centric ways to navigate content,” says Berger. “This varies of course by the individual content piece: while a story about the latest soccer match between Madrid and Barcelona may spread like wildfire socially, another, more timeless article on giving childbirth might prosper over longer time horizons as friends tell their friends about it when they need it. And a great manual on how to repair a punctured bicycle tire might never get any social attention, but will help a lot of people searching for immediate help.”

Evergreen content is only as useful as its ability to be trusted, however. That means these sites have to consistently produce quality content that users can trust enough at least to click on and read before establishing a real opinion about it.

Look at Wikipedia

“Wikipedia was probably the first content site that became a search-driven utility the general public is aware of: most web users today possess a concept of what they can and cannot do with Wikipedia definitions in their search results,” explains Berger. “New content models like Suite101…and some of our competitors will soon have built a reach that will foster a similar kind of public brand building where users judge web sites purely based on how well and trustworthy past search results helped them achieve their goals.”

“One does not have to go back to the debates around Wikipedia’s content creation model several years ago to predict that content quality will be decisive for our space to win the user trust needed to keep growing to large scale utility status,” he says. “We think that the high-touch, editorial model of Suite101, enabling only high quality writers to publish content, is one of the key ingredients to success as our industry matures.”

While sites like these (particularly Demand Media’s offerings) have seen a great deal of criticism over quality, it is for the reasons Berger is talking about that it is in these sites’ best interest to maintain a level of quality so people will not be afraid to click the results in search engines even if they do rank well.

Regardless of how any of these sites are perceived (and there is a pretty broad spectrum of perception), they’re certainly attracting the interest of writers looking for money and experts (or those striving to be thought of as experts) looking to build their credibility and brand reputations.

“Every week, several thousand people apply to become Suite101 writers,” Berger tells us. “While we only accept a portion of applicants based on our non-negotiable quality standards, we do have many successful writers on our site who do not consider themselves ‘writers’.

“We see it as Suite101′s mission to enable people – anyone who can write well and with deep understanding of a subject – to achieve their goals,” he says. “These might be earning money, addressing large audiences, building up a personal professional brand, or simply enjoying creative freedom in a nurturing, peer-oriented environment.”

Content Interaction in Different Markets

Suite101 has expanded into several foreign markets, and Berger had some interesting things to say on how people in these markets interact with the site’s content. “After launching versions of Suite101 in German, Spanish and French, with specialized teams and physical offices on the ground, we have learned a great deal about language- and market-specific differences,” Berger tells us. “Social signals, for example, gain ground rapidly in all major markets as a factor influencing content usage, and non-English markets prove to be quite receptive.”

“Case in point: our French and Spanish language sites receive a three times greater traffic share from Facebook pages than our English and German sites,” he adds. “Third-party referral traffic, on the other hand, is particularly substantial for our German content.”

“But so far we find that the similarities to our North American home market by far outweigh any differences,” Berger notes.

Monetization

“The best option to monetize most online content is (and will be for some time) advertising,” says Berger. “Advertisers today have sophisticated options to ensure their ads generate impact, which means that monetization varies strongly between subject areas, geographies and sites. At Suite101, we help writers who want to generate significant incomes understand how they can focus their articles on attractive niche opportunities.”

“With the launch of our Spanish site last year, we entered all Latin American advertising markets – all of which currently lag a few years behind the US or German markets, for example, in terms of maturity and general level of monetization,” he says. “As e-commerce penetration and advertiser sophistication improve in those markets, Suite101 and its local writers will directly and increasingly benefit from the traffic reach we are creating today.”

Currently, Suite101 is claiming 28 million unique visitors per month.

MySpace has been given a second life, and been included in the facebook family.
MySpace and facebook mashup is now available to all current MySpace and new Clients.
Mashup turns your Likes into real content on Myspace, creating a personalized entertainment stream full of videos, music, and more just for you. Now you can share your content in two places and increase your links and ranking in google thanks to the Mashup between facebook and MySpace.

There are many differing opinions on the best way to create a website. However, when it comes to creating a website that actually sells, your choices become much more limited. Why? If you want a website that sells, you must follow proven principles from sales and marketing.

But the first step is to become crystal clear on what you want.

What is your primary outcome? Are you building your list? Are you providing content to interact with your prospects/customers? Are you selling a product or generating a lead?

Only when you know exactly what you are trying to accomplish, will you be able to achieve that.

Model Your Website After This Proven Method

A great selling website starts with great copy. But that’s only the beginning. Great copy alone won’t do it.

Advertising takes many different forms: websites, sales letters, brochures, video scripts, and many more. What do all successful sales promotions have in common?

They are modeled after a proven advertising method. That translates to the particular media being used. What do websites that sell have in common? They model successful marketing strategies and copywriting in the offline world.

Why dírect marketing and not something else? Dírect marketing is measurable. And the Internet (as a type of media) is closest to this type of marketing than anything else. Finally, this type of marketing is based on response, not awareness or image creation. Its primary goal is to make a sale.

Why Your Offer Is Most Important

Besides the copy there are two other important considerations in writing a website that sells. First is your offér. While many place huge emphasis on the headline, it’s the creation of a compelling, irresistible proposition that is most important.

Why? Without an offer with all the right ingredients everything else can be right, but you won’t make many sales. Sure a captivating headline is critical to draw the reader in. However, you can take them all the way from the headline and opening, through the body copy, to the close. And if the proposition doesn’t make it, they still won’t respond.

The offer has to do with packaging what you provide directly with what your target market wants and desires.

Without The Right Strategy, Great Copy Is Useless

The final component of a great selling website is strategy. This is why it’s so important to know your outcome, before you begin. If your main goal is lead generation, to build a list you’ll want to create a lead capture page for your website.

If on the other hand your website page is selling a product, then you’ll want to create a landing page. A landing page is the marketing equivalent of a mail promo. The main feature is the sales letter, but there are many other structural and design elements that work together to make the sale. A landing page may include testimonials, an about the author box, and other information to help make a buying decision.

There are many other considerations when discussing strategy. But these are a few of the most important.

Notice I still have not discussed copy much. There are many that speak of the copy, like the Holy Grail. It’s not. It is exciting to see the possibilities of transforming really bad copy into great copy. However, it is ultimately not the most important thing. That’s why so often online marketers wonder why they got zero response. Stop blaming the copy, and look at the bigger picture. Even bad copy will usually get some response if everything else is right.

Having the right match between your target market, your offer, and strategy will get you pointed in the right direction.

What Makes Great Copy That Sells

As far as writing good copy? The biggest mistakes that I see being constantly made: Lack of clear communication. Copywriters who just don’t have a grasp of clarity in their writing. What you say is more important than how you say it, with one exception. When what you say is confusing or conveys the wrong message.

The second major blunder I see is going to extremes. Either by screaming out an over-hyped sales message like a late-night television infomercial. Or the boring opposite: fear of creating a really hard selling message and erring on the side of too careful. This is where most corporate copy falls short.

The power comes right in the middle. Hard selling copy, that’s interesting without being unbelievable. Proving every claim you make. Drawing the reader into an emotionally irresistible web of desire. Not stopping until you ask for the sale at the end.

Finally, the last major copywriting mistake I see is writers going off on a tangent. Failing to stay zeroed in on the sales message like a laser. Every time you go off track there’s a good chance you’ll lose the reader.

That’s why it’s so important to have rhythm to your copy: A natural cadence of short and long sentences. The best way to achieve this is by writing out great copy by hand. To ensure your copy has a good rhythm be sure to read it out loud. That will easily expose any rough spots.

When you have this rhythm, write in the language of your prospect, and write clearly with compelling copy…then you will motivate the reader to act.

What is credibility? According to the dictionary it means; “The quality, capability, or power to elicit belief.” In short, it means my ability to convey to my followers that I am a truthful and honest guy.

You can trust and believe what I say. How do I get you, my readers to believe this about me? I am going to give you ten steps to build credibility with your followers.

1. Verify that the information on my site is accurate

You can do this by getting third party support for the information you present. When you give links to your source material, even if people don’t go to those links, you are showing your confidence and trust in what you’re giving out.

2. Show Everyone That You Are Real

We live in an age of scams, inaccuracies, and lies. Showing a physical address, photos of products or offices, and a legitimate website for your organization should boast your credibility.

3. Do You Have Experts On Your Team?

Be sure to give their accreditation. People want to be sure you are affiliated with a respected organization. Make sure they know that you are. Don’t link with sites that are not credible. Remember, you are who you are by association.

4. Show That These Experts Are Honest and Trustworthy

Show who they are through some videos, images, or trainings. Let people see that the leadership and training of your organization is solid and true. Don’t be afraid to show the value of your group.

5. Put Your Contact Information Out There

So many people are timid and shy about this. You’re running a business, how are people supposed to get in contact with you if you don’t have an email, phone number, or some other way to get in touch with you?

6. Make Your Site Professional With The Right Look

Set your site up to look the part and create the image that you are trying to portray. You have just seconds to gain the attention of someone who is surfing the net.

7. Make Your Site Easy To Walk Through and Use

Research shows that if it’s hard for someone to maneuver around and see all there is to see, they won’t stay long and they won’t be coming back.

8. Update Your Content Often

Not only do the search engines give you more credibility when you do this, but visitors and your followers will also. Fresh new information will keep the traffic lines flowing.

9. Use Promotional Ads Sparingly

Remember you are branding you, so try not to bombard people with too many promotions and ads. Keep it to a minimum. You don’t want people feeling like their walking through the middle of the yellow pages. Keep them with lots of valuable content.

10. Avoid Mistakes – Even The Tiny Little Ones

Typographical errors and broken links hurt a site’s credibility more than most people imagine. It’s also important to keep your site up and running. You can loose a lot if your site is down for any length of time.

If you can implement these ten simple steps and be consistent with your efforts, your site will be visited quite frequently, your followers will increase, and your search engine rankings will start to rise.

Remember, consistency is the key. Don’t just start and do it for a month or two, keep at it and you will see results.

Try these ten steps and please leave a comment about the results that you received. I would love to hear from you.

You’ve got this hot new product that you’re sure will take the market by storm, all you have to do is get the word out, and you know the best way to make the biggest, most memorable impact is with a knock-your-socks-off viral video campaign published on your website and repurposed on YouTube.

If for some reason you doubt the value of video or its increasing impact on commercial presentation, and you need some statistical evidence to satisfy your skepticism, consult Paul Verna’s article “Companies Throw Their Weight Behind Online Video“.

You know you’ll need to support the video with a public relations blitz, and you’re investigating companies like Viral Ad Network and AlphaBird for seeding your videos so that they go viral. But how (there’s always a but) do you present your product or service so that viewers won’t dismiss your video campaign as just another sales pitch from a company that’s claiming to sell the greatest thing since Ron Popeil’s spray-on hair. The answer is both simple and difficult: simple to understand but hard to execute, and for most small and medium enterprises even harder to accept.

Start At The Beginning

Once you’ve made the decision to use Web video as a means to promote your company you have to decide if this is a project you are going to take-on in-house or outsource to professionals. Decisions. Decisions. Producing an in-house video campaign would, of course, be the cheapest solution assuming you have all the hardware and software, plus the technical, production, and marketing communication expertise to complete the task. If you don’t have all these assets at your disposal you’ll probably need to hire someone to help produce what you need, assuming that is, you actually know what you need.

Often the most critical issue in producing a Web video campaign is not how or even who produces the video but rather what you present. If you’ve already started to líst the dozens of features you provide – stop! The most important element of your presentation is defining what makes you special. To determine what makes you special you need to answer the question why should anybody care; in more marketing lingo, what is your emotional value proposition? Once you have a handle on your EVP, you need to develop an affordable conceptual framework in order to present it.

These are not easy questions to answer even for people who are in the video production business. Knowing what to do is not the same as knowing how to do it. It is the main reason you should hire a professional Web video marketing communication company to produce your video campaign and not a wedding videographer or one of those cookie-cutter operations with all the interchangeable pretty people ready to spout inane platitudes. The presentation solution requires more than mere technical expertise, it requires extensive business experience, and a grasp of what makes people tick.

Of Course This Article is Self-Serving

Being in the Web video production business, we of course would like every company interested in Web video to hire someone like us, mostly us, but whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, it is important to understand how to connect to an audience in order to make an impression and hopefully grow your customer base.

The Customer Is Not Always Right

Most customers are desperate for help but fear being taken for a financial ride by some fast-talking charlatan, or more likely today, some anonymous website that lacks any human component. As a consequence customers rely on what they think they know. Not knowing what you need to know can create a false sense of confidence leading to poor decision-making: a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is not some ivory tower notion only useful to academics; it is one of the main reasons consumers are so cynical about everything from advertisements to politics. Unhappy consumers are a direct result of poor decision-making based on false expectations created by a lack of understanding, and frustration caused by the illusion that they know more than they do. The prime culprit is the universally accepted sales technique of telling people what they want, or expect, to hear rather than what they need to hear.

Telling people what they want to hear may get you some one-off sales but those sales will be at the expense of long-term customer loyalty. This notion applies to you as a buyer of media services and as a seller of whatever it is you sell. If you don’t understand the emotional value inherent in your offering then you won’t ever develop a Web video campaign that will connect to your audience and establish appropriate customer expectations that result in customer loyalty and long-term sales relationships.

You know what you sell, you may even have the best features on the market, and you may actually provide quality service, but do you actually know the emotional benefit you deliver. Successful Web video depends on a producer’s ability to use the communication tools available to delivery that emotional benefit backed-up by an appropriate marketing and public relations campaign.

Presenting Your Emotional Value

Once you’ve defined the emotional benefit you provide to customers, you then must figure out how you’re going to present it to an interested audience.

Peter Marshall, film director and publisher of the ezine, “The Director’s Chair” suggests that film development, in our case Web video marketing, begins with understanding what the audience is going to SEE, HEAR, and DO. From an advertising perspective I would add a fourth requirement: what is the audience going to REMEMBER. Pretty simple stuff, isn’t it? What will your audience see, hear, do, and remember after they’ve viewed your video(s)?

What Will Your Audience See, Hear, Do, & Remember?

This is what we call the Brand Story development stage; what kind of presentation framework are you going to use? What story are you going to tell and how are you going to tell it? What is your video going to look like, sound like, and feel like; what kind of emotional response are we aiming to create? It is this emotional response that triggers action and promotes memory retention.

Web Competition: Survival of the Smartest

As video communication presentation technology becomes more and more affordable, it filters its way down to smaller enterprises, and a lot of homemade junk marketing is produced.

The thing that makes the Web so vital to small and medium enterprises is that it is a communication platform that puts smaller companies on a level competitive playing field with the big boys; but companies can only take advantage of the Web’s democratic nature if they are prepared to delivery professional presentations that connect to their audiences on an emotional level. The bar has been raised, so if you are not prepared to compete on that level, you risk putting your business at a competitive disadvantage.

I get this question asked all the time: “What do you think of my super duper galactic ninja in action business site?” In all honestly I really dislike this question because the expectation is for me to say “Wow, great site, nice design, and great layout.”

Don’t get me wrong, I do give honest praises for the design and the creativity especially if the person creating the site doesn’t know that much about web design.

The person usually hears the hesitation in my voice and asks, “Well what’s wrong with it?” To which I reply “I look at your web site and I have no idea what you do, who you are or how to contact you.”

Your web site is the new resume. The World Wide Web is the new digital newspaper. Here is an interesting fact: 83% of all recruiters Google their applicants and 43% discard applicants based on what they see. If your web site suffers you suffer.

Here are some of my personal 10 Design Tips for a Business Web Site to avoid your visitors guessing what you do and who you are:

1. Before the designing begins you should have a good outline of content that will be on the site for its launch. How many pages, what those pages will be, navigation order, color scheme, etc.

2. Content should include:

- A full complete description of your services or product. Your content should answer those basic questions mentioned above – who are you, what do you do, how to contact you.

- A way for people to contact you – email address, contact information page, or a contact form.

- Post comments or feedback from customers who have bought your product or used your service.

- Images of related to the content. It could be as simple as stock photo or more preferably a photo of your product or services. In other words, your images should reflect who you are and your services that you represent and should have appropriate ALT tags.

- Post a page of other businesses you have worked with. Link to their site. Ask to get a link back to your web site.

- If your site is large with lots of content, add a search function. Some search engines like Google will give you a free web search and the code you can just plug in to your site.

3. Avoid overloading your pages. Web pages that a visitor must scroll down more than 2 times should be broken up into separate sections. Visitors jut won’t read that much.

4. All pages should contain meta keywords and descriptions, and descriptive page titles. Meta tags are contained in the HTML code. Go to Wikipedia for examples and how to’s.

5. Avoid over doing the design. Keep it Simple. Don’t mix and match colors. Use a design wheel to organize your color scheme.

6. Avoid gizmos, widgets and gadgets. Just because you know how to make text blink or scroll on your home page doesn’t mean it is a good gizmo to have.

7. Avoid using Flash intro pages. I might be going against the grain here, but in my opinion Flash intros are a distraction and a detractor from your web site.

Visitors want to see and read about what you do and not a flashy advertisement.

8. Write and post articles relevant to your products or services. This will fill out your web site, keep visitors interested, and keep visitors coming back.

9. Don’t let your site get stale. Keep adding to it in an organized way. Introduce new articles, press releases, new training, etc. A web site needs to be continually updated.

10. Use spell check and grammar tools in Word or other editors before you post your content.

Creating excellent content is a key element of optimizing your online presence, but once you have created fantastic information you need to disseminate it. You may be one fantastic source of information, but if nobody hears you, does it matter? Make sure that you aren’t leaving out the step that will get you heard. We have compiled a list of the 5 best practices for content distribution:

1. Blogger Connections: You aren’t the only blogger out there. This may seem like a bad thing sometimes when there are so many other blogs to read. How will your blog get read if there are so many others that have equally great content? The trick is to get your content on blogs that are already being read. There are many wonderful blogs that get a lot of their content from guest bloggers. You can submit articles that you have already published on your own blog or create something new that you think the particular blogger would like for their blog. They may even have a request for a specific kind of content they would like from those interested in guest blogging.

Along with contributing to blogs that you are following already, make sure that you are also using services that will connect you with other bloggers. These are great for not only getting your content posted elsewhere but also for getting guest bloggers on your blog. These blogger connection services already have a great network of bloggers who would love to share content. It would be a waste of a resource if you didn’t use something like this.

Getting others’ guest content on your blog is another great way to link up with more bloggers. These guest bloggers may not have a particular need for your content yet, but they will most likely read your blog if they are contributing to it. This is great because not only have you acquired another reader, but they will be more inclined to request permission to use one of your blog posts on their own blog in the future or to spread the word about your wonderful blog to all their friends and associates who it would appeal to as well.

Remember when submitting a guest blog post to include the byline that you would like the blogger to use for your guest post. You want to make sure that they give proper credit for your blog, and it makes their job easier if they don’t have to ask you for it. Conversely, remember to request a byline or resource box from each of your guest contributors so that you may give them proper credit as well.

2. Publishing on Reputable Websites: There are numerous well established article databases and other content-based websites where you can submit your content. These websites are selective about the content that they publish which increases their reputability. This is positive for you because when your content is accepted by these websites and published, you know that your content is top quality. Those who find your content on those websites will also know how valuable your content is by virtue of the fact that it has been published by an already well-respected source and they will be more likely to want more content from you.

Be sure to read the submission guidelines of these websites. If you continue to submit content that is substandard, your future submissions will likely be ignored. If there are minor things to tweak in your content that will make it worthy of publishing on these websites make sure that you aren’t missing out on this. Overlooking necessary but simple corrections is an easily avoidable mistake.

Make sure you are running with the top dogs. If you think your content is worth submitting to a well-respected site, don’t hesitate to do so. Overcome your fear of rejection and go for it. You may be surprised at how valuable those leading authorities find your content. Don’t deprive readers of your information.

3. Keep Track of Published Content: When syndicating your blog posts and submitting them for inclusion on several different websites, you will want to make sure that you are keeping track of each place they have been submitted to and published. Part of building your credibility is that the content that you write is applicable to more than just your immediate readers. Make sure that you are keeping track of where your content has been published in order to write more content that appeals to those particular audiences.

Remember that part of interaction with readers and customers includes responding to comments and questions. How can you respond to these if you don’t even remember where your content has been published? Keeping track of comments and questions is easy when you are managing content posted on your own blog because you will receive a notice every time there is a comment left. Some blogs offer an option to notify you when anyone posts a comment after you have already posted, but you won’t know about initial comments unless you are keeping track of the post.

One last but very important aspect of keeping track of published content is that, like all marketing strategies, these efforts need to be measured and analyzed in order to create more appropriate future content. If the published content is receiving a lot of positive feedback, be sure to create more like it in the future. If the feedback is negative, adjust your content until it becomes something that readers find useful. Success relies on customer and reader satisfaction. Be sure that you are monitoring this.

4. Publish Press Releases: When an article, blog post, or video is being syndicated, it is completely appropriate to submit a press release. This doesn’t need to be an incredibly formal, pricey press release. There are many free press release publication services that will allow you to post as many press releases as you wish. Having your content syndicated is big news, make sure that you are reporting it!

Every time we have an article or blog post syndicated, we publish a press release about it. Our excitement about sharing our content with the world is equally felt by our readers who find out via press release. Creating a mutual interest, such as excellent content, with our readers is key in building relationships with them.

Press releases also get picked up by bigger news sources. The syndication of press releases lets even more people know about your incredible content and the cycle of content distribution continues. Make sure that you don’t skip this step because you may find new readers to provide with valuable content. Let the world know that others think your content is as great as you do. Write a press release!

5. Tweet and Digg About Published Content: Tweets and diggs are like mini, severely informal press releases. If you don’t have the time to sit down and write a press release the moment you find that one of your posts or articles has been published, make sure that you are at least tweeting about it. All of your twitter followers will immediately be aware of your content being published and if they haven’t already had a chance to read it they will be more inclined to do so.

The same concept goes for Digg. You can digg about your content to let even more of the world know what excellent content you have created and where they can find it. Let your friends and business acquaintances know that they can digg this content, too. You can let them know through your other social media platforms such as MyMark, Facebook and Twitter.

Creating great content is extremely important. The next step is to distribute that content throughout the internet so that it can be found. Make sure that you are publishing your content to other bloggers and websites and telling everyone you know that your content has been published there as well. This will increase the effective reach of your information. Start your distribution and information dissemination now!