Today, like never before, there are tremendous opportunities to market your business. For many business owners, ‘Traditional Media’ or ‘Old Media’ is still the preferred choice, yet the Internet, being the fastest growing media segment, is beginning to consume, bite-by-bite, the budgets of consumers. marketing specialists. In fact, it is common practice for companies to reserve at least 10% of their total ad spend for internet marketing. Other small businesses with limited financial resources are turning to the Internet for most, if not all, of their marketing efforts, and the most surprising thing is that virtually all business owners have a unique opportunity to reach their target audience for very little. money. Again, it is not expensive or too difficult to create and manage; however, it takes resources … specifically, it takes time to build and manage your marketing portfolio.

Hub and Spoke Marketing

I think that for most businesses, your (fully optimized) website should be at the center of your marketing portfolio. It is important not to go cheap with your website. Spend a few extra dollars and make sure it’s created by a reputable website developer who can provide examples of success. You will be able to tweak and save considerably on other marketing media, which will feed to and from your website. Some examples are listed below.

• Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc.
• Paid search: text and display ads on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
• Video Marketing: YouTube, Hulu, Metacafe, Flickr, etc.
• Printing, Brochure, Literature – Magazines, Flyers, Newspapers, Directories, etc.
• Television: advertisements on networks, cable, infomercials, etc.

Cross media marketing

Your entire marketing portfolio will be intertwined, interrelated, each working to drive traffic to each other and ultimately generate leads for your business. Here are some tips that I have successfully implemented in cross-media marketing.

1. Provide your visitors to one platform with some kind of exclusive offer or value to take them elsewhere. The temptation to “exclusivity” is extremely powerful. An example of this is asking consumers to join an e-club or sign up for a newsletter where members receive exclusive benefits. Interact with your audience. Engage them in surveys, request feedback or comments, and ask questions to engage with your audience. Show results and comments. Visitors are much more likely to participate in surveys and provide feedback if they see the most recent results and comments from others.
2. Recreate the atmosphere in all mediums. It is imperative to know your audience in order to offer them the products and / or services that best suit their wants and needs, but don’t do so at the cost of losing your brand identity. A consistent brand across all media is essential.
3. What are your goals on each platform? Measure and track your ROI. Internet technologies in particular provide detailed analysis on your marketing efforts.
4. Your website should promote all aspects of your marketing portfolio. Each and every visitor must be able to view and / or access your print ads, TV commercials, outdoor ads, display ads, Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube channel, LinkedIn profile, blog, newsletter. informative, etc.
5. Add new content almost daily on all platforms that link back and forth to your website and other platforms. This will play a huge role in becoming a valuable resource in the eyes of search engines.
6. The old adage, “to fail to plan is to plan to fail” applies here. You must have a Cross Media Marketing plan or model. Here are some examples of what I mean.
• Newspaper Flyer Insert: The plan is to promote your website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
• LinkedIn: the plan is to promote your blog, videos and your power point presentations.
• Blog: The plan is to promote an upcoming webinar, trade show, whitepaper and take them to the Contact Us page of your website.
• Twitter: the plan is to promote the selected pages on the website, YouTube and Flickr
• E-newsletter: The plan is to promote our Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as our promotions on the website.

If you have the resources, Cross Media Marketing using the Hub and Spoke model can significantly help drive traffic, produce higher page rankings, and ultimately generate more leads for your business.