Internet Footprint Service

Blogs. Podcasts. YouTube. Video. Facebook. Forums. Twitter. E-books. Membership sites. Wikipedia.

Internet marketing has changed. It's still about getting more people to your Web site, so you can promote your products and services to them. But the way you get them there has changed.

Briefly, it used to be about advertising. Now it's about your on-line reputation.

I'll explain ...

This is how Internet marketing used to work ...

In other words, you build a "shop" with products or services; you write compelling sales letters or "flyers"; you put high-value content on your site to make it attractive; and then you advertise to get people to visit.

But that doesn't work any more!

People aren't going to your Web site directly any more. There are so many Web sites that it's just not possible to visit them to evaluate them.

Here's how it works now ...

The first three steps are the same: The shop; the sales letters; and the content. But now you push your content out into the world.

And that's how they find you. From blogs, podcasts, forums and other places on the Internet. That's what "Web 2.0" means for you.

It's no longer enough to expect people to visit your Web site to find out you're an expert. Now you have to prove you're an expert before they ever visit your Web site.

Here's more proof ...

We can use Google's own Google Trends service to see how many people are searching Google for particular words and phrases, over time.

For instance, a popular consulting topic is sales training. Let's see how that has fared over the last five years:

As you can see, there's a clear downward trend. Even though Internet usage has increased dramatically over that time, and hence Google users have increased as well, the number of searches has gone down.

The same is true for other common topics like "leadership training", "customer service training", "goal setting" and "management consultant":

Let's be clear. I'm not saying it's worthless to market via Google. It's not - Google still gets a lot of traffic, and is a huge source of Web traffic for many Web sites. I'm just saying you shouldn't necessarily make that your primary marketing source - and definitely not your only marketing source.

How to market yourself as an expert

The Internet is less about advertising now, and more about reputation. People want to know you're an expert before they visit your Web site. Your on-line reputation will drive people to your Web site.

Let me give you two contrasting examples ...

First, let's look at motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who I don't think uses the Internet particularly well in his business. If you compare searches for "Tony Robbins" with searches for "goal setting", you'll see they follow pretty much the same (downward) trend:

Now compare that with marketing consultant Seth Godin, who does use the Internet well. He publishes to his blog regularly, he appears as a guest on podcasts, he's created a high-quality on-line community of supporters. So he's creating buzz about his name. If we compare Google trends for "Seth Godin" and "marketing consultant", there's a dramatic difference from the previous example:

In fact, as you can see, he's done such a good job of marketing himself that more people are searching for him by name now than are searching for his area of expertise.

This is good news!

If you're an information expert - a speaker, trainer, consultant, coach, mentor, author, financial planner, facilitator, or other service professional - this is great news for you.

Why? Because you're already creating great content - in your keynote speeches, training workshops, coaching sessions, books and audio programs, and elsewhere. Some of it might already be on your Web site. But is it getting out there elsewhere on the Internet for people to find?

Here are some examples of how people find you on-line now:

They're searching for blogs in Google Reader, subscribe to yours, and read it for a while, before clicking to your Web site.
They're browsing the iTunes Store for educational podcasts, download yours to their iPod, and then listen to it while walking the dog.
They search Google for a book everybody's talking about, and they find your blog with your book review.
They need content for their corporate in-house newsletter, and pick up your article from a public article directory.
On Facebook, one of their friends invites them to join a discussion forum, and they find you in there taking part in discussions.
You give away a free report on your Web site, and somebody who downloads it sends it to their friend, who is exactly the sort of person you want to do business with.

That's the good news, but ...

The bad news is if you don't take advantage of these opportunities, somebody else will. Your competitors aren't other speakers, other trainers and other consultants. Your competitors are the people who deliver the same message as you, but in different ways. And if you're not building your reputation on-line, your customers and clients will find other people who are doing it. And those competitors are reaching out to your clients from anywhere in the world.

That's where our Internet Footprint service comes in.

You can create the content. But you probably don't know have the time or the knowledge to keep putting it out where it matters.

That's where we come in. We help you get your great content out on your newsletter, blog, podcast, article directories, Facebook, LinkedIn, on-line forums, and special reports.

This is not for putting content on your own Web site. If you've already got a First Step Web site, you can continue to use our Help Desk and support services to help you with putting content on your Web site.

The Internet Footprint service helps you take the next step. It puts the content in other places on the Internet.

Here's how it works in a nutshell ...

Broadly, you supply (a) the initial material in audio or video format; (b) some branding information; and (c) a few additional pieces of marketing material. We take this and spin it into three months' worth of newsletter articles, blog posts, podcast recordings, and more.

Don't have a blog, podcast or newsletter? No problem - we'll set these up for you!

What's in it for you?

If you're comfortable doing all this stuff yourself, great - you don't need our help. But if you'd like some help getting started, or doing the "heavy lifting", we can help you out.

Here are some of the benefits:

You don't have to fiddle with all the technical stuff, which means you save time and don't get frustrated.
We publish the material for you regularly over the three months, so you just "set and forget" and don't have to worry about keeping to a schedule.
You can focus on thinking, learning, analysing and keeping up to date with your area of expertise, while we take care of publishing it and leveraging it as a marketing tool for you.
We use our years of experience to focus on the right things, so you save money in wasted effort and ineffective marketing strategies.
Your increased on-line exposure will capture the attention of colleagues around the world, so you increase your connections and network in your field of expertise.
You'll be one of the few experts doing this well, so you create a strong point of difference that positions you as a leader.
That said, a few other experts - and even amateurs - are doing this already, so you remain competitive in your market.
We publish your material using community-oriented tools like blogs and newsletters, which increase your following and network of clients and prospects.
Your material can be shared with other people's networks, which means that your message reaches a far wider audience.
We work with you as a team, each using our strengths, so we work together to create more impact.
We give you a launch pad for the future, so it's easier and smoother for you to continue publishing material later.

Let's look at this in more detail ...

At the start of the program, I (Gihan) will conduct a 45-minute telephone interview with you, to help capture your content. You can decide on the topic of the interview, and plan out what you'd like to discuss. The recording will be the basis for what we do.

Alternatively, if you already have a suitable audio recording of some material - for example, a CD program or a high-content segment from a presentation - send that to us instead and we'll use that as the source material.

We'll also ask you for basic branding information (e.g. your logo and photo) and some simple marketing material (e.g. a one-paragraph positioning statement).

What do we do?

The Internet Footprint service operates over three months. During that time, we'll do the following things for you:

E-Mail Newsletter
	Create Newsletter: If you don't have an e-mail newsletter already, we'll create that for you and design it to match your existing branding.
	Publish the newsletter: We'll publish the newsletter once every two weeks, with each issue containing a feature article (taken from your interview), a relevant quotation, a testimonial, and a short promotional piece if you wish.
Articles
	Create PDF Articles: We'll convert each of the newsletter articles into a PDF document, formatted attractively and branded with your own branding. We'll send these to you so you can distribute them yourself - e.g. faxing them to selected clients, e-mailing them or printing them as presentation handouts.
Blog
	Create Blog: If you don't have a blog already, we'll create that for you using Blogger.com, publish it with its own domain name, and design it to match your existing branding.
	Publish blog posts: We'll publish 3 blog posts a week to the blog, using audio extracts from your interview, articles from your interview, links to useful Web sites, and other relevant material.
	Promote in Facebook, LinkedIn and other community Web sites: We'll add your blog to your Facebook page, so your new blog posts appear automatically on that page whenever your Facebook friends look at it. We'll do the same if you've joined any other community Web sites that support this feature. We'll also add your blog to your LinkedIn page.
	Add to the Thinking Ahead Journal: Each week, we publish a mini-magazine of all our clients' blog posts for that week, and distribute it through our own blog. We'll add your blog posts to it as well, to give you a wider reach.
Podcast
	Create Podcast: If you don't have a podcast already, we'll create that for you, design a logo for it and prepare it for use.
	Submit to iTunes: We'll submit your podcast to the podcast directory in the iTunes Store, one of the most popular places for listing podcasts.
	Promote in other podcast directories: We'll submit your podcast to other podcast directories on the Web, so people can find it in different places.
	Publish podcast episodes: We'll publish a new podcast episode every two weeks, using audio extracts from your interview. For each episode, we'll "top and tail" it with a music clip of your choosing (we have a suite of royalty-free clips you can choose from, or provide your own). We'll also give you the audio clips for your own use.
	Post to blog: We'll also publish the audio clip to your blog, so people can listen to it there if they choose.
E-Book / Special Report
	Write the e-book: We use the material from your interview to create a special report about your topic area, which you'll be able to give away freely as a marketing tool.
	Format the e-book: We add standard information to your e-book, such as: Copyright notice Permission to reprint Links to your Web site
	Create a three-dimensional cover graphic: You give us a picture for the cover, and we'll turn it into a professional three-dimensional graphical image
	Promote it in various on-line directories: We submit your e-book to on-line e-book directories. This is particularly useful for free e-books and special reports, because other people can download them.

You also get three months access to the eGurus Community, which gives you additional resources, a community of like-minded people, and access to live webinars (or their recordings, if you can't attend live) each month.

Is this right for you?

This service isn't right for everybody. You'll get the most out of it if you meet these three criteria:

You're an expert.
If you're already running a successful business and you believe you've got valuable expertise to share with your market, you can probably tick this box.

You create high-value content.
This service helps you leverage your content; it won't create the content for you.

You want to improve your on-line presence.
This might sound obvious, but this service is only useful for you if you're genuinely interested in using the Internet as part of your overall marketing strategy. Although we'll be doing the work for you, you should still have a basic understanding of blogs, podcasts, articles, and the like - and what they can do for you.

Who does the work?

We do the work for you, using a combination of our own efforts (Gihan, Rae and Natasha at First Step) and outsourcing solutions. We manage all the outsourcing, so you don't have to worry about following up providers.

What if you've already got a PA, VA or other support person?

If you've already got a personal assistant, virtual assistant, office manager or other support person - that's great! You already recognise the value of outsourcing and delegating non-core work to others with the right expertise.

We don't want to replace these people. But we can complement them, by providing a specialised service they can't offer. We have years of experience with Internet marketing. If your support team doesn't, then we can provide that for you, at the same time freeing up your team to do what else they do best for you.

In fact, at the end of the three-month service, your support person might be exactly the right person to take over this work and continue the foundation work we've done for you. To help this happen smoothly, we're happy to Cc your support person on all correspondence during the three months, and can involve them as much as they'd like in the process as an observer.

How much does it cost?

The three-month Internet Footprint service is $3,600 + GST, paid in three instalments:

$3,000 + GST initially
$300 at the start of Month 2
$300 at the start of Month 3

So, for investing less than what you'd get for one keynote fee or one training day, you'll get all the features I've described for three months, as well as the foundation for continuing the activities yourself in the future.

We'll also ask you to sign up to Hipcast.com for uploading audio/video clips, and publishing your podcasts. This is just US$5 per month, so it's very inexpensive.

We'll also ask you to sign up to a few other services (e.g. Blogger, Feedburner, MailChimp). However, these are free services, so there is no cost to you.

What happens after three months?

At the end of the three months, you can renew the service for another three months. We'll do a brand-new interview to get the source material, to ensure you're always publishing fresh material.

Alternatively, you can cancel the service and continue to do the updates yourself at no cost. All the on-line services are registered in your name, so you have full control of them.

Take the first step ...

To get started with this package, phone First Step on (02) 8005 5746 or e-mail gihan@gihanperera.com.