Ricky’s Online Business Blog

I got an enquiry from a member of a reputable direct selling company in Singapore.  As member, she was given a special web page with her name and photo on it.  She asked how to promote her web site.  I’m not really an expert but ventured to answer her question.  Please add to my answer if you have any good ideas.

Question

Hi Ricky,

I need a favour from you, can you please advise me - How can I promote my website (http://name.company.com) as you are an expert in this.

Answer

I’m still long way to become an expert.  Anyway, here’s my brief feedback.

I have checked your web page.  However, as the web site does not belong to you, and so you have not much control over the web site content, there is not much thing you can do on the web page itself.  Otherwise, you could do some search engine optimization (SEO) to attract Internet traffic.

But I guess there are at least two other ways to promote your business online:

First, use social media like Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn and even Twitter.  Not only mention what you do, but treat these media like your “mini PR agencies” to constantly update and tell the world how you are doing in your business.

Second, set up a blog and tell the world what you do.  Although you don’t have control over the web page your company gives you, you have control over your own web site.  Use blogging not only to attract Internet traffic from search engines by SEO, but also to show your products and services, with photos and funny stories.  Those people having similar mindset as yours can get attracted to you, and maybe your business.

What someone you first meet asks you, “What do you do? What does your company do? Why you do it better?”, how would you answer?

in just a few sentences and short span of time, you need to catch his or her attention and leave a good first impression. Perhaps he or she will want to hear from you again and become your customer, or develop a business relationship with you later.

That is called the elevator pitch, a little sales pitch in as short span of time as an elevator ride.

When people ask me such questions, I normally answer “I’m an Internet business developer”, “I run a few dot com web sites”, “My main business is web hosting”, “I operate an education portal” and the like.

Non-technical people may reply, “Oh I see. So you design web sites!” Sometimes I just said, “Something like that lah!”, although I’m not a web designer. But it seems this is more understandable to many people.

Anyway, I have failed to explain and failed to impress them. Lost opportunities

So now I need to think of a better pitch. Do you think these are a little better?

• To business and finance people - “I develop Internet businesses that generate positive cash flow within 6 months for its owners”
• To non-technical people - “I build businesses that operate on the Internet. Learning to earn money in my pyjamas” :-)
• To bosses, sales and marketing people - “I sell products and services on the Internet using the latest technologies”
• To technical people - “I develop dot com web sites with PHP and MySQL”
• To hosting customers - “I provide you a platform to put up your web site and email accounts on the Internet”
• To people in education industry - “I do a little match-making in the tuition industry. Are you interested to be matched?”
• To my mother who doesn’t know what I’m doing - “As you can see, I sit in front of computer everyday to earn money!”

How about you? What is your elevator pitch? Feel free to introduce yourself!

I once thought I was a so-called “Internet marketing expert” long time ago (but I was not really one) .  I tried to learn up all I could at that time, including from the late Internet marketer Corey Rudl. My site was even among the top 2 in Google in its early days when you searched for “Internet marketing in Malaysia”.

But obviously I have been left behind after so many years, that now you can no longer find me when you type the phrase above in Google. Yes, the competition has caught up. But to my fault, I have remained stagnant and didn’t keep up with the changes

Anyway, now I consider myself a newbie “reborn” on the Internet and will try to catch up as much as I can. Found this blog post from E-Myth, a very good introduction to search engine optimization (SEO) for web sites.

It introduces you how search engines work (you need to understand them to be able to optimize your sites for them), and what you can do to increase your chance of being ranked highly on search engine result pages.

It’s basic yet very important. Lots of web sites still fail to heed the advice. So check it out!

PS: By the way, I no longer position myself as an “Internet marketing expert”, simply because I am not. Even if I am one day, why should I tell the world?  I can use the skills only for my businesses, and projects which I really have a heart for, including some non-profit and community projects I already have in mind…

Just attended the MIRC KL TechNite in Bangsar Village II.  Today’s speaker was Kenneth Tai, the e-commerce doctor, on “Digital Branding & Marketing”.

I knew Kenneth three years ago when both Kenneth and I were called to a meeting by a common customer to advise him on Internet business.

It’s good to catch up with him again. Kenneth has been an e-commerce consultant and Internet marketer.  Impressed by projects done for clients and ideas inspired by him.  The web sites are showing among the very top in search engine result pages!

I feel grateful to have listened to his presentation, though many ideas are not new.  There are a few facts and interesting points that I cannot agree more:

• 80% of companies in Malaysia are still not using the Internet to promote their brands!
• There are many well-known brands in Malaysia.  But amazingly you can’t find them on the first page in search engine result pages.
• Digital branding online does not need to be expensive.  In fact it could be much cheaper than offline brand building.  Branding using YouTube is an example.
• Your web designers can develop a beautiful web site, but may not be the right person to be your branding and marketing consultant.  You won’t hire an IT person to do marketing, will you?
• Many people are worried about payment and security issues on the Internet.  But when they come to buying air tickets from AirAsia online, there is no problem! Why?

Yes I think businesses are under-utilizing the Internet to do branding online.  What are they still waiting for?  Internet is not just a channel to reach customers, but is a market battlefield nowadays!

Besides the more technical aspects, I wish I could learn more about the more business aspect of building brands online, such as what brand image and personality to take relative to competitors.

Digital branding leads to me to think of how we as individuals and bloggers can brand ourselves on the Internet or in the blogosphere.

Kenneth took on the brand of being an “e-commerce doctor”.  Hanzo Ng poses as “sales ninja”.  Shall I become a “monkey blogger”? :-)  How about you?