This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up to a winter wonderland outside – what nice way to kick off the holiday season! I was thinking about the snowflakes that were falling and how amazing it is that each snowflake is unique.

I got to thinking about web content as snowflakes. Here at Hall, we talk a lot about how creating new and unique content helps bring traffic to your site, aids in converting visitors, supports Search Engine Marketing (SEM), as well as a slew of other great perks. We also understand the challenges that come with creating new content, because we face them as well. Content creation takes time and energy, as well as that good ole “creative juice” that some of us aren’t naturally born with.

While we’re distributing content about social media, SEO, internet marketing, and Content Management Systems (CMSs) so are our competitors.

What makes our content different?

We work with different partners all belonging to the same channel and although they are distributing similar content it’s important that they somehow distinguish themselves from the others.

What sets them apart from each other?

photo credit: CaptPiper

As I was reflecting on this and thinking about the snowflakes, I realized that what makes the content unique and different is the people behind the content – it’s the fact that the businesses are unique. People are what makes content unique, fun, informative, and interesting. Whether it’s your background, prior experience, your personality, writing style, or even the examples  used to bring your content to life; you  are able to offer something that no one else can – because it’s your own.

Creating new content doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it seems. Even though you may be developing similar content as other businesses, when you use your own experience and bring personality to your content, you’re setting yourself apart from others. Whether you’re responding to industry news or creating your FAQ page, as long as you know what makes your business special and can relay that to your readers, your content will be as unique as the snowflakes.

Since this is the first of our holiday blog posts and one of my favorite things to do around the holidays is give gifts; my gift for you is to take a five minute break and make your own UNIQUE snowflake – Happy Holidays!

People are most likely coming to your website for two basic reasons – they are either researching their options or they already know what they want and are ready to purchase a product.

Does your website meet the needs of both types of visitors? Make sure you equip your site with the resources necessary to grab the attention of people who are in either phase.

Research Phase: The following resources are helpful to users who are researching products or services. Not only are they researching the actual product, keep in mind that they are also gathering clues to help them make a decision on who they’d like to potentially do business with.

• FAQs – Use this section of your website to answer commonly asked questions by your prospects and customers. It’s also an easy place to send people who ask you questions via email, phone, or in person – and helps bring traffic to  your site.
• Product Comparison – Show the benefits of certain products over others and explain important features people should be looking for.
• Demo – Demos are a great way to show visual learners “hands-on” how the product works – how easy it is, neat functions, time saving tips, etc. People researching products will benefit from having a quick demo to get a glimpse of what using the product will actually be like.
• Blog – Blogs are a great way to bring traffic to your site and they are loaded with information about your products, services, specialties, how-tos, etc. A person in the research phase will find a blog extremely helpful in selecting what’s right for them, and possibly, who is the right company to purchase from.
• Whitepapers – Show off your expertise by creating unique content available exclusively by your company regarding a product or a service you offer. A whitepaper shows thought leadership and professionalism, both of which are extremely important to someone who is researching a product or service before making a purchasing decision.

Purchase Phase: The following items are beneficial to include in order to meet the needs of a user who is ready to purchase your product or service.

• Company Contact Information – This is a “no-brainer” but it is essential to have your contact information in an easy to find place on your site. Offering multiple methods of contact, like email address, phone number, or website form, make contacting you flexible for the user (let them decide how they would like to reach out best).
• E-Commerce Option – If you have a product that can be sold online, a simple shopping cart gives the user an option to purchase a product instantly.
• Value added – Buying  something like a software product can be nerve-wracking for some. Knowing that there is help available for installation, consulting, repair, custom programming, technical support, etc. can alleviate hesitation about purchasing the product.
• About Us page – A page about your company is essential to have; especially for reaching out to customers researching/buying your product. Here they will get a feel for who you are as a company, who they may potentially be working with, why they should choose you and what sets you apart from other companies they could purchase from.
• Testimonials & Case Studies – Offering this information is your chance to build trust surrounding your company to future customers. They can see examples of how others have responded to your product, working with you, and how your products/services have helped other companies (similar to their own).
• Deals & Promotions – If you want to target users that are ready to purchase, offering a deal or promotion may be just the added benefit to get someone to purchase the product with you over your competition.

Take a look at your site – do you have content that is beneficial to people researching as well as those that are ready to purchase a product/service? Is it a good balance of both? Check back from time to time and think about what resources someone researching a product/service would look for and what will intrigue them to purchase from you.

Last week at Sage Insights in Nashville we had the great pleasure to meet with many Sage Business Partners and talk about the weather, websites, tech, the economy and social media… As well as answer questions like “What the heck is twitter?” and “Why are you giving out flying monkeys?”

Now that we’re back in the office, we want to make sure that we keep the energy going for all of the partners out there who got excited about new initiatives and marketing for their businesses. The tools are here, let’s get going!

Here are five concrete tips to make your new marketing goals happen post-Insights:

1. Define Goals

You need to know where you’re going before you can get there. So what is it?

Do you want to get better search rankings in your local area? Do you want to grow sales for a new product you’ve just gained certification in? Do you want to pick up more clients with an orphaned software installation? Do you want to expand into new regions?

Write down what you want. Look at it. Digest it. Commit to it. Okay, now what?

2. Choose Tactics

Now that you know what you want to do, you need to figure out how to do it. We provide a bunch of information on SEO, web design, PPC, email marketing, blogging, and social network marketing with the idea that it will help you better understand these tools and whether they’re a good match for your company.

For instance, a well designed website with a coordinated organic search marketing strategy is a must for nearly every company. Once you’re there, you can look at other options such as email (great to maintain relationships with existing customers), paid search (great to attract new business for specific queries or drum up registrants to an event) or blogging (great for establishing yourself as an authority in your industry).

3. Decide Who Will Do the Work

Now that you know what tools you’ll use, you need to decide who is going to wield them. Will it be you personally? Will it be your marketing manager? Will you be partnering with a vendor?

Understand the costs and risk associated with doing it in-house versus choosing a quality vendor. This is also a good time to make sure that the goals you’ve set, the tactics you’ve chosen, and the resources you have to invest are all in league. You won’t be able to go up against software.com for the term “Software” but I bet you can get to #1 for your product and service in your home town. You can expand from there!

4. Add to the Conversation

Social media has been on the radar for years but now it really seems to be hitting critical mass. Which means that more people are talking about what you do more than ever and that if you aren’t tuned in, you’re missing out on the conversation.

Our first piece of advice is always to listen first, but once you’ve done your share of listening, you can start contributing. Write articles that answer common questions, jump in on discussions where you can lend expertise, provide insight and comment on stories related to your industry. Don’t sell, but show that you’re human, real, and trustworthy.

5. Keep up the Enthusiasm

It’s easy to get psyched while at an event and then to let that excitement trail off as the everyday grind kicks back in. Fight the urge to let new initiatives slip! Mark out time specifically to pursue new initiatives, develop small and digestible steps that you can do and set benchmarks.

You can do all of this, and you’ll see that the payoffs make the effort well worth it.

Want More Inspiration Now?

• Sign up for an upcoming webinar
• See slides from our presentation Beyond the Hype: Social Network Marketing for B2B

The third day of Sage Insights was bustling, with sessions running from morning to evening, including our “Beyond the Hype: Social Network Marketing for B2B” (Stay tuned here for clips and slides!).

We wrapped up the tradeshow by talking to some of the different Sage Preferred Vendors about their experience at the show and how it compared to other years.  The bottom line: there were fewer people, but more people taking marketing their businesses seriously.  Hear some of their stories above.

On the second day of Sage Insights, partners learned a lot about the road ahead of their specific products and their respective markets.  The day was jammed packed with sessions, but between it all the trade show was open and many good relationships were getting started.

In our video clip you’ll see Michael Pires of HR411.com, provider of human resources guides, forms, support, employee handbooks, best practices, tools, and many other resources.   Also interviewed is Mike Renner of Business Management Solutions Group, as MAS 90 reseller in Seattle.

Finally, well… you’ll have to see for yourself.

Sage Insights kicked off Monday with sessions running throughout the afternoon, a keynote from Sage CEO Sue Swenson, dinner at the tradeshow and  then a few gatherings thereafter, notably the Sage LinkedIn group which featured passionate discussion about small VARs and their relationships with Sage.

In our YouTube footage of the day, we asked a few partners what they thought of Sue Swenson’s keynote, and then caught Bill Kizer, admin of the Sage Partners, Employees and Alumni LinkedIn Group, what he’s experienced with the group and where he sees it going.

Incidentally, that URL he mentions is: http://www.sagesoftwarelinkedingroup.com/

There’s another keynote today and many more sessions.  We’ll keep you in touch with what happens next!

PS: Don’t miss #insights09 if you want to keep up with the conference’s tweetivity.

Twitter has grown very quickly and it seems like people are talking about it everywhere. Twitter is up to about 6 million registered users. With all of these new users there is that moment – they sign up because they want to know what the fuss is about, they add a few friends, maybe follow CNN and a few other big names and it hits them: This is IT? What am I supposed to do with this?

The value is confusing as a new Twitter user. There are two tools that go hand in hand: Twitter Search and the use of #hashtags to monitor conversations.

Twitter Search is like Google Search but it only searches Twitter conversations. You can see what people are saying about the terms you enter up to the second! It is pretty wild and can be quite addicting.

Try searching some of these things:

• Things that interest you – hobbies, activities
• The city you live in, work in, grew up in
• Your company name (this can be scary to some people – people could be talking about your company right now!)
• Your products and services
• Your name, your twitter name, maybe a misspelled version of your name or twitter name (for example: for us our Twitter name is @Hall_Web but I have found people trying to contact us using @HallWeb so searching helps me catch that.

Twitter search is a great way to find new people and followers. A friend of mine says Twitter is like a cocktail party where you can eavesdrop on any conversation and drop in a thoughtful and funny quip whenever you want.

Using Twitter search is a great way for companies to monitor their brand reputation. Comcast has gotten a lot of props for its Twitter use for its Customer Service Department with Comcast Cares. Twitter is actively monitored for mentions of cable issues or mentions and @ComcastCares is right there with a solution or follow up question.

Using Hashtags

A hashtag is simply putting a # symbol in front of a term you want to be able to mark so you can search for it later and group it together with other people who are participating in conversation about that topic. You can make up hashtags or you can search for popular hashtags and follow along on a conversation already in progress.

As you notice on the Twitter Search page, you can see the most searched for hashtags. You can also check out sites like Hashtags.org which shows you all of the trending topics being talked about on Twitter.

Some hashtags to check out to find new followers

• #followfriday – is a weekly event (Umm on Fridays) where people recommend their favorite Twitterers with this tag
• Television shows like #Lost – real time conversation about the show
• Sports teams – #redsox die hard fans have real time conversation about the game, players and news
• Look for trending hashtags in your specific field – #fashion, #CPA, #HR etc.

Sometimes following hashtags can be hard. Many times you have no IDEA what people are saying (dang acronyms get me every time). There are sites out there to help you with that too, like Tagalus. If you see a tag and don’t know what it is you can just plug it into Tagulus and they will tell you what the heck these people are talking about.

Using Hashtags at Tradeshows and Events

For me, I think the best part about hashtags is extending the life of tradeshows, conferences and events that I attend. These in-person events are always full of information, resources and brilliant minds but you always had that short window to take it all in. Now using Twitter hashtags you can get more value before, during and after your event.

Before: You now have an easy resource to connect with people before an event. Perhaps set up a specific time to meet them in person at the event. You can tell people your schedule at an event, your booth number, what you will be offering and create that relationship before the face to face encounter. Look for the event hashtag on the event’s website, from your peers or even start it yourself if no one else has.

During: While attending an event people are having conversation online about it. Attendees are taking notes from sessions and meetings and tweeting them. Monitor the Twitter feed about the event you are at and see where the action is, who is where and possibly make new connections where you would not have otherwise bumped into in someone.

After: So you pack up and head back to the office with your notes and it is over? No way! Continue to use that hashtag to keep the conversation going. Alert your followers when you post a blog about the event or photos of the event. Contact people you may have missed meeting in person. Set up interviews or follow up conversations with presenters or speakers at the event who are using the hashtags. Ask experts questions. Extend the life of the event by keeping the conversation going after everyone has gone home.

Using Hashtags at Sage Insights

The official Twitter tag for Sage Insights is #insights09. Sage partners and members have been using the tag to promote meetings, opportunities to connect, and sessions. During the event we will be Tweeting every day with what is hot at Insights this year, what people are telling us they have learned this year, notes from sessions and much more. You can follow us at @Hall_Web and feel free to ask us questions whether you are at the show or not and we will seek out the answers for you.

If you are at Insights send us a tweet and we will meet up!

For the last hours of the Sage Software Insights 2008 tradeshow we of course talked to some more business partners, as well as some of other Preferred Vendors at the show. See some of our final observations before we wrap up for a very successful week!