Marketing Profs

A new Internet gold rush has been taking hold with the emergence of social networking, blogging, podcasting, and other Web 2.0 experiments. Media companies and Internet giants have reacted promptly by acquiring many of the new players to take advantage of these new advertising vehicles and evolve their endangered models.

Yet advertisers themselves have stayed on the sidelines to a great extent. Small businesses, especially, have reacted cautiously to Web 2.0 marketing, fearing its hype and its inherent risks.

John Jantsch and I started discussing this reluctance. We decided to explore the issue through the eyes of a small business, and have tried to distinguish between hype and sound new marketing practices. John is a marketing coach and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. John's personal blog has been named "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" by the readers of Marketing Sherpa for two consecutive years.

What we discovered are five emerging trends that every small business should be aware of. We still think that small businesses should be cautious and look to use new media or Web 2.0 in highly personalized ways, using sound marketing principles. However, here we share these trends through examples of small businesses that have been among the first to capitalize on Web 2.0, and subsequently have reaped early benefits.

Trend No. 1: Establish a blog as your primary Web presence

Customers value who they do business with sometimes as much as what they buy. Blogging provides you with a more personal environment, where you can both promote your product and present a more personal view of your business.

Blogging also allows you to initiate an ongoing conversation with your customers and build a long-term relationship. Blogging is especially important in professional-services small businesses, where the person is the product and where word-of-mouth and recommendations are the primary sales driver.

Horsefeathers, a restaurant in North Conway, NH, publishes a blog about food, wine, local events, and restaurant news as a way to keep customers connected and loyal.

Cornerstone Wealth Advisors in Overland Park, KS, created a blog about investing and other financial matters, and uses it as the jumping-off point for several practice groups.

Patti Thompson is the president of Way-Fil Jewelry, located in Tupelo, MS. She serves as the appraiser, designer, and one of two bench jewelers. She writes a combination of personal anecdotes, stories about her store, and appraisal posts ("What is gold sodium thiomalate?") She also links her "Diamond Diva" blog to her eBay store.