Costco Connection

small business
New-age
marketıng
Developing a Web-based
strategy for success

22 ;e Costco Connection MAY 2012

By Steven Van Yoder

SMILING ALBINO, a travel company specializing in Southeast Asian adventure trips, serves upscale couples, honeymooners and families in the United States, Canada and the UK. The company ( www.smilingalbino.com) enjoyed a steady stream of Web inquiries, but in 2009 noticed a dip in its overall website visits. Upon investigation, it was determined that the Internet had shifted dramatically since Smiling Albino created its first website in 2000, and the company needed to update its overall Internet marketing strategy.

“We needed to pay more attention to key-
words and getting industry websites to link to
us,” says Daniel Fraser, who founded the
Calgary, Alberta–based company with Scott
Coates. “We saw that we had to not only talk
about our travel services, but to position
Smiling Albino as a trusted adviser in our
market niche, providing our expertise across
several online channels and targeting people
who were planning vacations to Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam.”
The company started blogging, develop-
ing informational posts such as “Keeping the
Kids Happy in Bangkok,” and created a
You Tube channel and podcast series. Fraser
and Coates also wrote several educational
articles, such as “ 3 Days in Cambodia,” pub-
lishing them on article directories and travel
websites that reached their target market
while boosting their search engine visibility.

“We learned that we had to create an
online presence with useful content,” says
Coates, who also recruited past clients to
help spread the word. “Overall, our Web-
presence strategy aims to not only influence
search engines, but create brand credibility
with online prospects that moves them to
click back to our website and begin a conver-
sation with our company.”
Smiling Albino offers a textbook exam-
ple of how to grow a successful business in
the modern age of Web-based marketing.
Here are other tips that could do the same
for your company.

Step 1: Offer info to consumers

Your virtual (online) presence now means the difference between attracting and converting customers or losing market share to Web-savvy competitors.

Consumers are clearly taking control with search engines, independent websites, blogs, mailing lists and online communities. According to the 2010 Search Engine Results Page Insights Study, more than three-quarters of respondents search online to learn more about a product or service after seeing an ad elsewhere, 79 percent of respondents favor natural (versus paid) search results and 76 percent gather information through online searches before purchasing from a store or catalog.

COMSTOCK

Moreover, consumers expect company
websites to focus on helping visitors make
informed buying decisions. A recent Focus
Research/IDC study shows that consumers
now expect vendor help via relevant online
content at each stage of the buying cycle and
view sales professionals as “adding less and
less value to the decision making process.”
The message from all of this? Position
your business as an educator, helping pros-
pects solve problems with educational con-
tent. This approach positions your business
as a trusted adviser in the buyer decision-
making process.

Step 2: Focus on findability

Understanding search engines is a necessity. “With each passing year, business location is spelled G-O-O-G-L-E on the Internet,” says Bruce Clay, author of Search Engine Optimization All-in-One for Dummies.

It starts with using keywords to place high in search results, says Clay. First, research keywords and search phrases that relate to your products, services or areas of expertise. Ask people within your target market to suggest words they’d use when searching for businesses like yours, study competitors’ websites and use a keyword research tool (see resources sidebar).