Out-of-the-Box Marketing

Ingenious PR stunt? I certainly think so. Ethical? The verdict is still out.

Wal-Mart has definitely gone away from mainstream media and into the extremely powerful word-of-mouth marketing.

In fact, many large companies are now starting to take advantage of blog marketing. Here is a small sample of other companies who have joined the blogging trend: Google (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/) , Intel (http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/) , Microsoft (http://blogs.msdn.com/Bloggers.aspx?GroupID=2) , and Yahoo (http://www.ysearchblog.com/) .

Companies large and small are using blogs to brand themselves, interact with customers, and increase their credibility.

However, this is not the only technique being used by smart online marketers. Another internet marketing technique that is rarely discussed is postcard marketing.

Postcard Marketing

Postcards can drive huge amounts of traffic to your web site and produce a surge of business activity. Yet, they are still very affordable.

With an eye-catching giant postcard, you can grab the attention of your prospective customers faster than an email, ad or sales letter. A 6" x 9" full color postcard stands out from the stack of white envelopes in today's mail.

You can use postcards to brand your business in ways that most marketing materials cannot. All the while, your competitors will never even know you are marketing and therefore, cannot track your marketing strategy and copy your techniques.

If you are an online marketer looking for ways to combine the power of online and offline marketing, here is a simple three-step strategy:

1. Send an email out to your prospects informing them to expect a gift you have just mailed. This will be referring to the postcard, but don't tell them exactly what the gift is, keep their curiosity going.

2. Mail them a postcard with details on how they can access their free digital gift. Use a bright, colorful design to catch their attention.

Keep Your Message Brief

Don't try to close the sale with a postcard. Your postcard message should be used simply to generate leads.

To do this, briefly state the major benefits you are offering your reader and then focus on motivating them to get more detailed information on your web site. Then, on your web site, you can close the sale.

One of the most important things to remember when mailing a postcard is to make it personal. Nobody wants to receive an ad in the mail. That type of mail goes straight to the trash. Instead, make your postcard a personal message that looks like a brief message from a friend. Customize each postcard with your prospect's first name within the letter. You can even place their name in the headline or in the P.S. This will generate much more response than an ad.

3. Send a follow-up email asking if they received their gift. Reference specific information within the digital gift. For example, you could ask, "Did you read about my biggest marketing secret on page 32?" This type of follow-up email will increase your response rates. Within your follow-up email, be sure to include an additional link to their free gift.

This combination of online and offline contact creates phenomenal conversion rates.

The next marketing technique is one that is gaining extraordinary growth on the Internet. Many online marketers are not taking advantage of international marketing . Read on to find out how to translate your business into multiple languages and put yourself one step ahead of your competition.

International Marketing

Are you marketing in just one language? If so, you are missing out on 64.8% of your marketing potential. This portion of the world is surfing the Internet in a language other than English. By becoming a multilingual marketer, you immediately open up a stream of new markets. Google alone crawls web pages in 35 different languages.

One of the best ways to attract worldwide traffic is to translate your site and register with both English and foreign-language search engines and directories. Not to mention, the competition in foreign search engines is much less cutthroat than the search engines in the United States.

There are two ways to translate your web site into other languages. First, you must translate each page into a specific language. Once you have all of your pages translated, you will then need to link them all together from your home page.

However, the best way to translate your site is by creating a completely new site for each translation.

Doing this offers a variety of benefits. One of the biggest benefits is being able to register a country-specific domain for each of your web site translations.

For example, if you currently own www.companyname.com and you are translating into French, it would be appropriate to use www.companyname.fr. This country-specific domain lets the search engines know that you are a French web site.

By setting up a new web site for each language, you will also be entitled to additional directory listings in the country specific Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ, and other high–profile web site directories in that language.

Creating multiple sites is also beneficial for your linking campaign. People will be more likely to link to you if your website is entirely in their language. Because link popularity is such a crucial ranking factor within the search engines, creating separate web sites would be in your best interest.

Step three in your multilingual strategy is to submit your newly translated site to the foreign search engines.

You can find a complete list of the top foreign language search engines at http://www.allsearchengines.com/foreign.html

Another opportunity that is opened up by multilingual markets is that of pay-per-click search engines.

Using pay-per-click search engines is one of the fastest ways to start funneling targeted traffic to your website. While many of the pay-per-click engines in the United States have been flooded with competition, many of the foreign pay-per-click search engines have untapped opportunities.

English language search terms can often be five-times the cost of Spanish language bids. For example, the keyword phrase "internet marketing" cost $2.09 for the number one position in the English version of Overture. If you place an ad in the Spanish version, it would only cost you 50 cents for the very same position.

You can research Spanish keywords using the Overture keyword suggestion tool at http://inventory.es.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Keep It Personal

Keep in mind that many web surfers located in countries other than the United States and Canada do not trust web sites as much as Americans and Canadians do. This is largely because the internet was first introduced in English.

Because of this, visitors from other countries will want your online business to have a personal touch. You can do this by providing local contact information and an address in the footer of each of your pages. Your visitors need to know that you are a real person that can be trusted.

If you decide to translate your web site, do not take this task lightly. There are many considerations that must be taken into account. It is important to steer clear from automated tools to translate your site. Instead, use local translators who fully understand how business works in their country and make sure you have a local sales staff to support each of your customers.

Your online presence is just as important as that of an offline business. You need a customer support staff that will be available to your customers at all times. You are not just translating your business, you are establishing an online business in that language and a local presence in the country you are targeting.

Now that you know some of the latest marketing trends, I urge you to take action on at least one of these strategies. Take advantage of these trends now while the other online marketers struggle to keep up.

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews & SEO-News newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim@seo-news.com