UPDATE: After posting about the Social Media Workshop, we received requests to give an additional seminar on SEO – search engine optimization. So, we added a One Day Seminar on “SEO – The Fundamentals of Optimizing your Site for Search”.  If you register for both the Social Media Workshop and the One Day SEO Seminar, you’ll get a 15% discount on both!

To register, click here

About the workshop

We will be covering:

• Key concepts of social media and online marketing
• Search engine optimization and why it’s important for social media marketing
• Identifying goals and audience
• How to use Twitter for marketing: Setting up profiles that work for business, building up community, promoting your profile, what and how to write, monitoring, measuring, the best tools, etc.
• Getting the most out of LinkedIn: Using your personal profile to achieve business goals, customizing your company page, understanding the power of LinkedIn groups and Questions
• YouTube: Why YouTube is a huge opportunity, creating and optimizing your YouTube channel, optimizing your YouTube videos, growing your community
• Using Facebook for business: Profiles, Pages, Groups, Questions. how to analyze Facebook Insights
• Managing your web presence: How to manage your social profiles, content, and campaigns, Social media dashboard options and setting up your dashboard, Monitoring tools
• Getting your site ready for social media activity: Optimization, capturing leads, shareability, email marketing, analytics, social buttons

View the full workshop schedule here and register

Lecturer: Miriam Schwab
This workshop will be taught by Miriam Schwab, the Friendly CEO of illuminea, who is recognized as a leading developer on the WordPress platform and regularly lectures and serves as a web marketing evangelist and resource to the broader internet community.

To see a list of the conferences and events that Miriam has spoken at, click here

Workshop details

Dates: July 20, 27, August 3, 2011 from 9:30am-1:30pm

Location: Tel Aviv area (Exact location to be announced)

Last day to register: July 13, 2011

The workshop will be taught in English.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions: info@illuminea.com

To register, click here

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SphinnCon is coming back to Israel on January 9, 2011, and it’s a conference that I think any one who is serious about search marketing should seriously consider attending.

What is SphinnCon?

Have you ever heard of SMX? Well, SMX (Search Marketing Expo) is “the [my bold] original and best search marketing event.” We in Israel are lucky since SphinnCon is a unique SMX-related event that takes place outside of the US, and as far as I know it so far has only happened here.

SphinnCon Israel is the premier networking event designed for SEOs, SEMs, SMOs and affiliate marketers to exchange ideas, influence the industry and build their networks. Get a full day of sessions and keynotes (and snacks) from some of the industry’s leading experts, from Israel and abroad. For example, this year’s speakers include Sam Michaelson from Five Blocks (who’s always entertaining), Olivier Amar from PointUp Media, Branko Rihtman (active on Twitter as @neyne) from Whiteweb, Dixon Jones from Receptional Ltd., Eli Feldblum from RankAbove, Kevin Gibbons from SEOptimise, and more. Chris Sherman, the Executive Editor Search Engine Land & President of Searchwise, is also coming, which is cool, along with Kaspar Szymanski, Google Search Quality Strategist from Google Dublin Office. What a lineup!

The whole thing is being programmed by the awesome Barry Schwartz (also known as @RustyBrick), who is a leading personality in the world of search engine marketing thanks to his work at RustyBrick, his very popular site The Search Engine Roundtable (which just got a site redo on a custom CMS – check it out), and his multitudinous writings on Search Engine Land.

(I’ve always wanted to use the word “multitudinous” and now I have. Success.)

And I’m speaking there…

I’m speaking on the first and last panels at the conference: at 9 am on SEO Tips, and at 4:30 pm I’m moderating the panel on Social Media in SEM & Search. Which basically means I’ll be there all day! See the full schedule.

How to register

If all of this sounds good, you can register here. Attendance costs $100, which is not cheap for an Israeli conference, but considering it’s an SMX conference, and the leading people from the industry who are coming from overseas and Israel, and how useful and enjoyable the last SphinnCons were (see my posts reviewing the previous SphinnCon events), it’s worth considering.

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So marketers are desperately searching for new ways to advertise to customers, one of which is the strategy of authenticity. This is when marketers create a video, or some other marketing piece, that looks real but has actually been carefully staged.

In most cases, the marketer lets the user in on the secret by telling them that the ad is fake, either directly or with hints. However, one marketer recently was so successful that he duped the entire internet into believing that his piece was real, to the embarrassment of almost everybody involved.

13 year olds steals Dad’s credit card to buy hookers – NOT!

A popular story ran on May 9, 2008 on money.co.uk about a 13 year old boy who stole his Dad’s credit card and ordered two hookers with it, only to be convicted of fraud and given a three year community order. This story was so popular, it reached the front page of Digg. It was also covered in other leading social media sites, as well as several online publications, resulting in 6,000 links to the article.

Well, it turns out the story was a fake. The writer, Lyndon Antcliff, says that he tried to make it as ludicrous as possible so its fakeness would be obvious. The story is indeed ludicrous; here are some excerpts:

• The credit card company involved said it was regular practice to send extra credit cards out as long as all security questions are answered.
• The escort girls who were released without charge, told the arresting officers something was up when the kids said they would rather play Xbox than get down to business.
• Police said they were alerted to the motel by a concerned delivery clerk…delivering supplies of Dr Pepper, Fritos and Oreos…
• Ralph had reportedly told police that his father wouldn’t mind, as it was his birthday last week and he had forgot to get him a present. The father, a lawyer, said he had been too busy, but would take him on a surprise trip to Disneyland instead. [my bold]

The goal of the story was to get attention from social media sites, generate backlinks and increase rankings on search engines for keyword phrases like “Credit Card,” and draw in hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Now that we know it was fake, you can’t help but wonder how people bought the story. But anyone who follows the top stories on digg can tell you that this story is actually mild compared to some of the other true stuff posted there.

lonelygirl15 – the fake/real video blogger

This episode is similar to that of lonelygirl15, a series of video blogs by a 16 year old girl named Bree, that became extremely popular on YouTube. Bree even had a MySpace page:

At first, the videos covered normal, everyday subject matter, as the title character dealt with typical teenage angst (and the ridicule she received from her deformed cheekbones), but quickly morphed into a bizarre narrative that portrayed her dealings with secret occult practices within her family and included the mysterious disappearance of her parents after she refused to attend a “secret” ceremony prescribed by the leaders of the family’s cult. (from Wikipedia)

Fans began to wonder if Bree was real in August 2006, pointing to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine. Eventually it was revealed that the whole thing was staged.

Lying in advertising is not allowed – you cannot claim your product will do something that it cannot. The same should go for online reality advertising – ethical guidelines should be developed for “reality” marketing that ensure that users are informed that what they are viewing is not real.

But of course, what is real anymore? If France 2 TV can stage the al-Dura shooting and get away with it, then who’s to say what’s real and what’s not?

Here’s another example of “reality” marketing:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=QWeNyT66IqI[/youtube]

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I’m excited to announce the launch of a new course I’m giving on blogging and social media marketing strategies.

About the course

The new web, also known as web 2.0, is changing the way we communicate. With people spending more and more time online as active participants in the consumption and generation of content, companies and brands who wish to engage with online customers must adopt a new way of thinking.

“Corporate Blogging and Social Media” is a 3-day seminar that will take place on Thursday June 5, June 12, and June 19, 2008. During the course, you’ll gain a solid background in blogging and social media, start your own blog and write and optimize your first post for social media and search engines. We’ll also cover the following:

• How an effective blogging strategy can be an amazing way to market your brand and/or company
• How to set up and promote a blog with the various social media tools available
• Creating and monitoring an online social media profile that delivers results.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) basics for better blogging
• Digital PR/PR 2.0 – moving beyond the conventional press release to the Social Media Press Release

Where and what?

The courses will take place at Beit Shmuel in Jerusalem, conveniently located off of King David Street, near the David Citadel Hotel. Each day will begin at 9 am, and continue until 6 pm, with short breaks and a lunch break. Participants will receive printed material as well as access to a password protected part resource section on the illuminea site. Refreshments and a dairy lunch are included in the cost.

Find out more about the course, and see the agenda, click here

For more information, please contact us at info@illuminea.com, or at (02) 566-0297.

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SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda’s Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don’t have to schlep to Tel Aviv for a great event, and I am thrilled.

There are also some really interesting reps from lesser-known but really professional Israeli companies: Tzvika Avnery will be there from Tagadam; Tzvika is a pro in the social media sphere and his company develops apps for social networks, among other things. Eli Feldblum from RankAbove will be there too; Eli is actually pretty well-known in the SEO world for his expertise, and his company services clients from all over the world. I’m mentioning these guys because I know them, but I hope I’ll get to meet the others on the panels too.

The main guy behind the whole thing is Barry Schwartz, the Executive Editor at Search Engine Roundtable, and President of RustyBrick, “a Web services firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.”

Here is the speaker list as from Barry’s latest post on the event at Search Engine Roundtable:

SEO Panel

• Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology (Presenter)
• Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
• Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
• Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il

PPC Panel

• Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp (Presenter)
• Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
• Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
• Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel
• Michael G. Samet, Ph.D., CEO, Referral Technology, Inc.

Social Panel

• Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove (Presenter)
• Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam
• Roi Carthy, TechCrunch
• Lior Haner, Yedda

Cool, eh?

Here’s what’s not cool: not a woman in sight on the speaker list. Not one. It’s a celebration of testosterone. I’m not against testosterone, but it would be nice if it was toned down a bit by at least one representative from the other 51% of the human race. And it’s not like there aren’t impressive women in the industry: how about Tamar Weinberg, who works at Rusty Brick and writes the amazing Techipedia blog? Or Tzvika Avnery’s partner at Tagadam, Orly Izhaki, who has a really impressive background in web-related ventures, and writes at smo.co.il (Hebrew)? Don’t tell me they were unavailable as an excuse. I’m sure there’s at least one woman in the web industry who could have been available.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this event, and I’ll hopefully fill you all in on how it goes. If they have internet access, I may even Twitter and live-blog the event like a good lil’ social media geek should.

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There are so many social media sites and tools out there, that it’s hard to know which to pay attention to, and which to ignore. Also, how do we use them effectively and still retain time to get some real work done?

A recent discussion took place on the CIWI (Connecting Independent Writers in Israel) mailing list about how to start a blog, and whether one should start one at all. One writer was of the opinion that blogs are passe, and that users should concentrate on microblogging mediums, like Tumblr and Twitter.

In my opinion, the microblogging tools are a nice addition to an overall social media strategy, but are weak on their own. Many of the most popular people on Twitter, for example, are those who have built up a following for themselves via their blogs. They use Twitter to drive people to new posts on their blogs, and to create a supplementary stream of information. Much of the information on Twitter is backed up by longer posts or articles on other sites.

Blog, Twitter, both, none? 

So what is the best way to create an effective web presence? Do we blog, do we tweet, or do we do both?

Adopting a social media strategy can be a daunting task, particularly due to the wide range of tools and services available. Users need a strategy that is effective, yet also gives them time to have a life outside of the web.

Here’s how I have structured my social media activity. This is not necessarily the only or right way to go, but it can give you an idea as to how to get started:

1. Blogs: I use this blog to write about different issues related to marketing and business. In order to keep up with the world of WordPress, which is the platform we use to build all our sites and blogs, I also write a blog called WordPressGarage, which we use as a kind of online manual for knowledge management. WordPress’ categorization features such as categories, tags and search, are excellent for managing information. WordPressGarage has become more than just a blog: I use WordPress’ Blogroll to keep track of my links on the Links We Love page, and I’ve set up a microblogging section in the sidebar called Shorties, which is where I post really short bits of info that don’t justify a real blog post. I could have accomplished this with del.icio.us and Tumblr, but I really prefer to keep everything in one place if I can.
2. Twitter: I don’t really like Twitter, but I use it because I know it is effective. It also helps me keep up with the social media arena, and I have to admit I’ve found some pretty interesting content thanks to the twitterers that I follow. I post here short things that aren’t appropriate for my blogs, or I post links to new posts on my blogs. (You can find me here on Twitter: http://twitter.com/miriamschwab.)
3. LinkedIn: LinkedIn was really boring for a while, but it seems to be picking up, although it’s still not the type of site I’d visit on a regular basis (unlike the site mentioned in step 4). The advantage of LinkedIn is that it gives me a place to create a professional profile that people can easily find on the web. Other than that, not much happens there (unless I’m missing something). It’s like a really boring party where we all shake hands, and then sit around looking at each other. And here I am on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/miriamschwab
4. Facebook: facebook acts as a kind of aggregator for all the content that I publish all over the web. I mashed together my blog RSS feeds into one feed, and that feed is pulled into my facebook profile’s notes section. My twitters (tweets) appear in my facebook status. Any extra stuff that I want to publish or share that aren’t directly connected to marketing or WordPress are published there too, like videos, links and events.

Here are the social media sites that I would like to be more active in should the days suddenly become 40 hours long: flickr, YouTube, de.licio.us, digg, and StumbleUpon.

The above still uses up a lot of my time, but it ensures that my “online presence” stays fresh and current, and my offline presence retains some semblance of a life.

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Burger King has hit viral video payday with their new Whopper Freakout viral video. In the video, customers at Burger King in Las Vegas are told that the Whopper has been discontinued. They are shocked and even outraged, or as the website puts it – they “freaked out.”Viral video success is basically about getting lots of people to talk about your thing, whatever it is. In this case, Burger King has succeeded since their videos on YouTube have been viewed thousands of times, and many people, myself now included, have written about their stunt.However, it’s one thing to get people to talk about your viral thing; it’s another to leave them with a good taste in their mouth (no pun intended!). I personally found this video hard to watch and offensive, but I’ve never been a fan of blooper-type videos where we all get to laugh at the expense of someone else. I personally think this video’s success is precisely because it allows the viewer to feel so smart that he or she knows the truth, while the person in the video is the butt of a good joke, and I’m not sure that this is the most effective way to achieve viral fame.But maybe it is. And anyways, there is one really good marketing lesson here that was pointed out by Easy Street Marketing: If you want to create buzz for your product, don’t let anyone have it.Robert Gorell at Future Now says that the Whopper Freakout was one the best TV + Web viral campaigns for the following reasons:

• The reactions.
• It’s “flame broiled,” not fried.
• The Whopper isn’t a new product or promotion.
• The King is a man of few words; he’s a prankster, but ultimately, he saves the day.
• A short TV commercial serves as a teaser, while the real payoff happens online.
• Their custom video player is grainy, making it feel voyeuristic and, somehow, more trustworthy.
• Even though they built their own site, they still put it on YouTube.
• It’s brilliantly filmed and choreographed.
• You can share it (email it, embed it).
• They didn’t have to do it.
• They did it.
• Unless you’re vegan, it kinda makes you crave a Whopper.
• “From what I understand, they were too popular.”
• It’s actually not a ridiculous stunt, unlike this.

In any case, it’s an interesting study in viral marketing, and the efforts by big corporations to spread the word via the web and with social media.

Read an interview with the video’s director Henry-Alex Rubin to get a look at the inside story, and how they set the whole thing up.

And of course, in the tradition of all things viral, here is yet another embedded instance of the video:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=mMOPj6-4nDU[/youtube]

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Here is the ultimate example of the value of good marketing and packaging: bling H2O, which is basically glorified water in a really pretty bottle, that costs as much as some people in the world make in a year.

People pay more for water already when it’s in the form of mineral water. But in that case, there are qualitative arguments that are made about the taste and quality of water. Whether these arguments are right or wrong is anybody’s guess, but at least people are paying for quality.

With Bling H2O, it’s all about the bottle and the brand. Yes, bling H2O touts their nine-step purification process and their gold medal for best tasting water, but it really comes down to the Swarovski crystals:

Bling H2O is the inspiration of Kevin G. Boyd, Hollywood writer-producer….he noticed that you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water they carried. In Hollywood, it seemed as if people flaunted their bottled water like it was part of their presentation….[Bling H2O is] couture water that makes an announcement like a Rolls Royce Phantom…the “Cristal” of bottled water….Bling H2O is pop-culture in a bottle. But it’s not for everyone, just those that Bling. So the question is: Do You Bling?

Fancy H2O is as crazy as fancy MP3 

If you think that people who are willing to sacrifice their children’s college funds for a water bottle are crazy, then I invite you to examine one of the world’s hottest gadgets: the iPod. The iPod is pretty much just a glorified MP3 player. But people refuse to believe it.

Yesterday while on the elliptical machine at my gym (don’t get excited, I’ve been there all of three times), the women on either side of me began discussing iPods. The woman without the iPod asked the woman with the iPod if she liked it, and if she should get one herself. Woman-with-iPod said that it’s amazing, she loves it, and she should definitely get one. They decided that woman-without-iPod should get an iPod shuffle, since it’s less expensive but also great.

The iPod shuffle to me is a like a blind iPod. You can’t see anything in it or on it, and you’re at its mercy. So I butted in (as I tend to do), and suggested to woman-without-iPod that she buy a regular MP3 player. “What?” said woman-with-iPod. “Yeah,” I said. “I bought one at Office Depot for 150 NIS, and it’s great. “Does it work?” she asked incredulously. “Of course,” said I, “it’s a Sandisk so it’s pretty sturdy, and it does what I need it to do.”

People LOVE their Apple gadgets. They take it personally if you talk against them. They’ll claim that the reason that they love them is because they are so superior to any other gadgets out there. But the real reason that they love them is because they love the brand, the design, and the packaging. They love being part of the Apple experience. They love feeling like they have bling.

If you Bling it, they will come 

I guess people want to feel Blingy all the time, and in the US those with excess amounts of disposable income (i.e. rolling in the dough) are running out of ways. So Kevin has come along and given them a way to feel Blingy even while drinking water, which is something they probably do pretty often. And so, people will shell out cash for the privilege of holding a Limited Edition, corked, 750 ml, reusable frosted glass bottle of Bling, handcrafted with Swarovski Crystals. For thirty seconds until they finish drinking. But it’s 30 seconds of Bling heaven, which is apparently worth a fortune.

To sum up: Bling sells. Make people feel like they have Bling, and they’ll pay you a lot of money. And then you can finally buy that iPhone you’ve been coveting.

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If you are a designer or provide design services to clients, you have probably encountered the clients who look at your finely crafted works of art and say “Why is there all that white space? Fill it up!” or “Please use this beautiful logo that was created by my nephew as the basis for your design.” We know what those logos look like – like they were designed by a nephew!

I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there are some principles that do impact on whether a design is successful or not. Putting all the text in Times New Roman font size 30, in a blinding shade of fluorescent pink doth not a successful design make.

When you encounter these types of clients, and you find that you are compromising all of your graphic sensibilities to give them what they want, go to this site and watch the video. It’s brilliant, and it can really cheer you up and make you realize that you are not alone.

Someone recently said the following to me: “Tell the client what they need, but in the end – give them what they want.” I guess this is what keeps us from becoming starving artists.

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It’s that time of year again: the next Entrepreneur Breakfast meeting is coming up, and we’ve got an amazing speaker lined up for you.

Ruth Shlossman, Principal at the Washington DC-based negotiation consulting firm, Watershed Associates, will be the guest speaker at the upcoming Entrepreneur Breakfast meeting on Monday, September 17, 2007. Ruth will be talking about “Best Negotiating Practices…Learn the basic, universal, key negotiating practices that create a win-win outcome.”

Watershed Associates provides consultative training in negotiation skills worldwide, and has served global corporations such as Coca-Cola, General Electric, NASA, and Rolls Royce, to name just a few on their impressive client list. Ruth Shlossman has over 20 years experience in leadership, sales and consulting. She has trained thousands of people in the art of innovation, negotiation, sales negotiation, and bargaining with emotional intelligence.

In my opinion, this is an opportunity not to be missed! To find out more details, and how to RSVP, read on!

Date: Monday, September 17, 2007.

Time: 9 am – sharp!

Venue: Probably the Begin Center in Jerusalem. We haven’t finalized yet, but this seems like our best bet. It is conveniently located across from Jerusalem’s Cinemateque and near Emek Refaim.

Cost: About 50 NIS per person. This will only be finalized once we close on the venue and we see the number of people who RSVP, but we estimate that it will be around this amount.

Please note that we do not have the facilities to provide receipts, since we are not a registered amuta. All proceeds go directly to cover the costs incurred in planning the event.

The meeting will include a light breakfast of coffee, juice, baked goods and fresh fruit.

To find out more about the meeting, go the Entrepreneur Breakfast site, and click here to RSVP.

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Facebook is on everybody’s minds these days (or blogs). It’s the latest killer app/site/web 2.0/social/community thingy. Well, it’s not really the latest, since it’s been around for a few years, but since they opened up registration to non-college people, it really took off.

Since I joined Facebook, I’ve been able to create a continuous connection with family and friends who are overseas, and rediscover friends from days of yore. I’ve had people contact me who I haven’t seen or spoken to for 15 years!

Cons of Facebooking for business

But is Facebook a good business tool? I’m not sure. A number of bloggers believe that Facebook is a good business tool, and that it can help you promote yourself professionally. But I think there is a major problem with Facebooking (can it be a verb?) for business: there is too much blending of personal and business.

My Facebook profile is simultaneously communicating with my 20-something cousins and business contacts. I have pictures of my kids there plus announcements of business events. There are probably people on Facebook who maintain a purely professional profile, but I can’t/won’t do that since I need to use Facebook for personal communication too.

Pros of Facebooking for business

If we compare Facebook to the current standard in business networking, LinkedIn, Facebook has a definite advantage in that it helps you look alive; it brings color to your online face. With Facebook, you can post notes, change your status, send messages, build groups, etc. You also get to see what’s going on with your friends: who they’re friends with, what they’re doing, new pictures they’ve posted, etc.

LinkedIn is the most boring site on the planet. My profile just sits there and does nothing. It is not dynamic, it rarely changes, and has no personality whatsoever. The same for the profiles of my LinkedIn contacts – boring, static and cold.

As a website developer, I’ve found another major advantage of Facebook: it drives traffic to your sites. I have been working on a new site for many months, and now that it’s getting closer to official launch, I decided to put a link to it on my profile. Surprisingly, the stats show that a high number of visits are coming from Facebook. (If you want to see the site, go find me on Facebook and look at the sites listed in my profile…)

Conclusion

Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with people around the world. It’s easy to use and dynamic. Although it can begin to consume way too much time if you’re not careful (read about Jason Calacanis’ Facebook melt-down) I do suggest that if you haven’t yet set up a Facebook profile, you do so immediately. People are looking for people over there, and you don’t want to miss an opportunity.

Update: Rebecca, illuminea’s Account Manager, pointed out this video which is a must see for anyone involved (obsessed) with Facebook:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PH4aElf6CU[/youtube]

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Small businesses have small marketing budgets. In a previous post, I listed 5 low-cost ways to market your business. Two of the methods mentioned were advertising on Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav. Since bootstrapping businesses need to ensure that every advertising dollar is justified, I decided to conduct an unofficial study comparing Google Adwords and Dapei Zahav (the Israeli version of the Yellow Pages).

The winner with no holds-barred: Google Adwords.

Here is a comparison of the features of both advertisers:

Dapei Zahav:

• For a relatively low monthly fee, you can have your business appear on their site at the top of the classification of your choice. I put illuminea at the top of the copywriter classification, and wrote a blurb in Hebrew about what we do.
• The features of the package that I selected included the option to add an image, and provide a discount coupon for those who order via Dapei Zahav. The salesperson was very unclear about many things, such as selling me the option to add a button which links to my site. What I didn’t understand is that there is no need for such a button, since a link to the site appears under the blurb.
• They offer you other additions, like a map of where you are and a contact form. A map is mostly useless since if someone wants to come to your office, they can either look up your address or call and get directions, and if they want to contact you, they can send you an email to your listed email address or call you.
• Your listing can appear under other classifications too.
• I also was given a listing in the print edition of the Tel Aviv directory.

The Results: Not one phone call or email from my Dapei Zahav listing, even with all its prominence. No one even tried to use the coupon to get a discount. I got better results when I had a tiny free listing on Dapei Zahav.

Google Adwords:

• You can choose as many search words and phrases under which your ad will appear. You can also select the countries in which your ad will appear. This is a good way for Israeli advertisers to save on advertising costs.
• You only pay when someone clicks. If you are selective with your keywords, this means that only people who are interested in your type of services are clicking. Even if they don’t order, this increases exposure of your site and business to the right people.
• You can set the maximum you are willing to pay for clicks on different keywords. This is also a good way to manage your budget.

The Results: Many phone calls and emails from interested prospects, and quite a few orders that more than made up for my investment.

Apparently, when my clients in Israel are searching for service providers, they use Google. Maybe it’s because they are more web-savvy, while businesses in other sectors could benefit from a Yellow Pages ad. I don’t know.

Once I realized how innefective my Dapei Zahav ad was, I called to cancel my order and reduce my listing to a minimum. It turns out that they were also not clear at all when I ordered, and when they said I could reduce my listing after four months, they were only referring to certain parts of it. So now I’m stuck paying for it until the end of the year, and I can’t even find my own listing there anymore!

When I told the Dapei Zahav saleswoman that I was cancelling because I had recieved no orders from them, and many from Google Adwords, she said to me “But we’re working very hard on raising our rankings in Google!” I asked her why I would advertise with them if all they were trying to do is use Google to get better results – why not just pay Google directly?

So, if you are looking for a low-cost and effective way to advertise your business – Google Adwords is the way to go!

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Last night I attended my first speed networking event. It was organized by Digital Eve, who has held two such events in Tel Aviv, and last night’s was the first one in Jerusalem.

Where?
The venue, the Pera e Mela (Apple and Pear) restaurant in Safra Square, was great – good Italian-style food, nice ambience, and an opera-singing owner who did a short piece for us (I’m not kidding!). The women in attendance were of all types and professions, and it was inspiring to meet such a talented, varied and creative group. About 20 women attended, including a handful that schlepped from Tel Aviv. Most of the women were self-employed and business owners, but we had employees as well.

Who?
Women of all types were in attendance; religious, secular and in between; a wide range of ages; and native Israelis and olim from England, the US, Canada (me!), Australia, and probably women from other countries that I missed. Based on the business cards I collected and what I remember, here is a sampling of the professions that were represented: 2 life coaches, an organizing consultant, a whole bunch of women involved in marketing of various kinds (including yours truly), a business and project management consultant, event planner, VIP tour planner, the owner of an executive search firm, graphic artist, training manager, and an expert in translation tools!

How?
How speed-networking works: we all sat down, ate (very important at any Jewish/Israeli event) and schmoozed (also Jewishly important!) with the people around us. Leemor Machnai and Susan Fisher then spoke to us about the importance of networking, and how to overcome barriers that we create in our head to networking. Then came the speed-networking part (which I guess is based on the speed-dating idea, or vice versa): we all stood up, and had a few minutes to talk to another woman about what they do, and what they are looking for. Then the whistles would blow (at first loudly but when the proprietor of the restaurant complained the whistling became almost inaudible) and we would move to the next woman. I didn’t have time to meet everyone, but it was great meeting whomever I could.

Nu?
So we schlepped, schmoozed, and conspired to take over the world after eating some good pasta. All in all, I had a great time. Of course, I don’t get out much these days due to baby and work-overload, so any opportunity to get dressed and meet other adults gets a high ranking from me. But I think that the fact that the event was supposed to end at 10, and at 10:50 Leemor had to gently point out to our surprise that it was almost 11, shows what a great time we were having.

Kol hakavod to Leemor, Susan, and Susie Kaufman (who played a big role in organizing the event but couldn’t come) for putting together such an interesting, inspiring and enjoyable evening. It was nice putting faces to the names I see on the email list, and I’m looking forward to the next Digital Eve event in Jerusalem!

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Our eyes play a significant role in our decisions to buy. There is a big difference between a written description of a product and the product itself in all its 3D glory. Salespeople who play to our senses may be more successful than those that rely on descriptions or texts to make their sales.

No one wanted dessert until he showed up with the tray of goodies

No one wanted dessert. We had eaten our fill of fine café food, and were ready to ask for the bill. But then our waiter arrived with a tray laden with delicate, tempting cakes and sweets, and asked us if we wanted dessert. When my eyes fell upon the whipped cream/strawberry/jello concoction, I just couldn’t resist (I love jello – don’t ask). He made the sale.

This was a brilliant tactic that I had heard about, but never encountered in Israel. Usually, once a customer finishes the meal, the waiter approaches to ask if they want anything else. Or, the waiter brings the dessert menu, and waits for a choice. Some restaurants try to make the menu itself more appealing by writing flowery descriptions of the food. Instead of writing “Pecan pie” under the desserts section, they will describe the tastes, ingredients, and presentation of the pie. This makes the pie a little bit more appealing, but it is only words. It is not the smell and site of a hot, fresh, piece of pie.

Our eyes and senses are easily influenced. So how can you make your products or services more visually appealing and sensual, and hard to resist?

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Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog initiated a Group Writing Project where people can share any lessons they learned over the course of 2006.

So here’s my lesson from this year: diversifying your marketing strategy can benefit your business, and it is possible to do this on a shoestring budget.

Diversity is good
People generally agree that diversity is a good thing. Not only is there a lot we can learn from cultural diversity among people, but diversity is praised in other realms as well, such as investing (diversify your portfolio), eating (diversify your diet), exercise (different types of exercise encourage you to continue), etc. And now I can recommend diversity in marketing.

Until about June of this year, I was depending on word-of-mouth and repeat customers to keep my business going. As a sworn bootstrapper, I refused to spend any money on fancy marketing campaigns, and was enjoying the benefits of slow and gradual growth.

But in June, I realized that I had reached a crucial point in the state of my business: I either had to accelerate the amount of incoming orders, or resign myself to a business always on the verge of extinction. If I wanted to make that leap into business-dom, I had to invest in my marketing strategy.

I introduced a few marketing tracks to my portfolio that met my strict bootstrapping standards, and were reputed to be effective. And they were.

Diverse Marketing Strategies for the Sworn Bootstrapper

1. Yellow Pages: Yellow Pages (Dapei Zahav in Israel) allows every business to advertise for free. The free listing is very barebones, with only the company name, mailing address, and phone number. No website or email. After two years of being listed, I got a call asking me to put together a PowerPoint presentation and write a script for a promotional video for one of Israel’s leading women’s clothing franchises. This is the Israeli equivalent to winning a contract from Old Navy in the States – talk about ROI!
2. Google Adwords: I’ve had a website for over two years, and while it was a good calling card for people that I met and gave my business card to, I wanted it to work a little harder for me. I didn’t have enough traffic, links, etc. to get good results in Google, so I introduced an Adwords campaign. I made sure the campaign is highly targeted and only appears to Israeli surfers and for certain keywords. By targeting the campaign, I could keep the costs low and ensure that only people really interested in my services were visiting my site. As a result I saw traffic to my site increase by about 30%, and even got a great order from a cool start-up in Tel Aviv.
3. E-newsletter campaign: even though we at illuminea highly recommend e-newsletter campaigns to our clients, we embarrassingly did not have one ourselves. So this month I made it a priority to initiate such a campaign. Since my mailing list is not very big, a monthly campaign costs me a few bucks with an online service that allows me to manage my list, track clickers, openers, unsubscribers and bouncers. It has resulted in increased traffic to my site and reminds people that we’re out there and available.
4. Networking: I always found the idea of networking to be corny. Forced relationships with people seemed artificial and insincere. However, I have to admit that almost every networking effort I have made has yielded results. The way I try to overcome the falseness of networking meetings is by deciding that I am going to learn about other people and their businesses, which can actually be quite fascinating. I ask fellow networkers about themselves and their experiences, as a result of which I learn a lot and even win business.
5. Blog: And finally, illuminea joined the blogosphere. I became convinced of the advantages a blog can have for a business, such as attracting new and repeat visitors, and pleasing the search engines with fresh content. An effective blog can also demonstrate your expertise. So far, the blog has shown good results, people seem to enjoy it, and we have been approached about a number of projects as a result.

By diversifying your marketing strategy, you increase your chances of winning business from different client groups. Low-budget strategies such as those listed above provide a great return on your investment: if each yields only a handful of projects a year, your investment was more than worthwhile.

Good luck to everyone in 2007 and may it be a fruitful and satisfying year for businesses worldwide!

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In yesterday’s post, I argued that a business should have a website right from the start so that they look professional for the first potential client that they meet. There are more reasons that a business should have a site from the beginning, and all of them have to do with vision – a big vision of where you want your business to go is an essential part of achieving your goals. Therefore, your first steps should take into account where you want to be in a year, or two or three from now. Unless you have venture capital funding or a PhD (Papa has Dough), your business can grow, but this growth will be slow. (This is not necessarily bad, but we will discuss business growth rate in another article.) In these cases, you need to start acting now to achieve your goals later on down the line.

Here are three reasons that your business needs a website now:

1. It takes time for the search engines to find you: Your site will not appear on the search engines the day after you launch it. The search engines have to find you first, and crawl your site. You can submit your site to the search engines to speed this process up, but even so it may still take them some time to pay attention to your site.
2. A good website makes you look like the business you wish you were: You may work out of your storage room, but the world doesn’t need to know that. A professional website with useful content can influence the way potential clients perceive you, and whether they choose to do business with you. You don’t have to look like a storage-room business just because you are – dress your business up for success with an impressive corporate site.
3. It takes time to spread the word about your site: Using your website on all marketing materials from the beginning is an effective way to increase the legitimacy of your business and spread the word. Marketing material does not only refer to expensive printed brochures and flyers; it also refers to any type of communication that leaves your office. This can include emails, invoices and bills, letters, blog and forum posts, and more. And of course this includes your handy, low-cost, most effective piece of marketing material you’ll ever own: your business card.

To build up your business, you need to have a long-term vision and always keep your sites on it. Yes, you may be a one man/woman show working out of your storage room today, but where do you want to be in a year? If you want to promote yourself from storage room to tiny rented office, take action now to work towards that goal, and let the world think that you already have that tiny rented office!

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According to many of the lecturers at the current MATI course, it is not recommended for new businesses to invest in a website. These lecturers explained to the participants that first you need to have customers who will go to your website, so first get the customers and then get the site. They said the same applies to printing brochures.

I strongly disagree with this approach as far as websites go. I do agree with them on the brochure issue, since designing and printing a brochure is very expensive and inflexible – once the brochure is printed, you can’t change anything in it without reprinting the whole batch. For a business in its infancy, flexibility in marketing and keeping costs low is very important, since many businesses change direction within their first months or years.

But the question regarding the website is really a chicken-or-egg type of question. According to MATI, you should first concentrate on getting the clients. But could it be that the clients will only come if you have a website?

I believe that for a business to succeed, the business owner must approach their organization from the very first day on a high professional level. A business looks much more professional if their business card advertises a website, and all email communication is conducted through a dedicated domain name, such as info@business.com. And a website does not demand a huge investment; a simple and professional site can be built for a low price, and for only a few dollars a month for hosting, a constant presence on the web is guaranteed.

A huge advantage of a website for any business is the ability to display testimonials and a portfolio. When you meet people and tell them what you do, they will want to know more about you – how experienced you are, who your other clients are, what they thought of you, some work samples, etc. By handing them your business card, that is only the first step in your relationship. By visiting the website displayed on your card, potential clients can gain a better understanding of the quality of your service or product.

Yes, you may be able to gain clients without a domain name and site. But you will probably increase your chances if you look like a professional, established business from day one. You want every potential client to see how professional you are, even if they are the very first person that you meet in your new role as business owner.

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5 steps to an effective e-newsletter campaign

1. An exciting subject line – your readers are bombarded with emails every day, including other newsletters. Your first goal is to get them to open your newsletter, and your subject line plays an important role. First, make sure that it is obvious that the email came from your business, and is not spam. It is recommended to start the subject line with your company name in brackets, like this: [illuminea]. After that, write the most exciting subject line you can come up with, in as few words as possible. Try not to use more than ten words in your subject, and make sure it tells your reader about the benefits they will get by reading your email. For example, if you sell lighting for offices, consider a subject line such as this one: Study shows worker productivity increases in offices with better lighting. What employer wouldn’t want to read about that?
2. A personal from line – many email systems will send your campaign from an address like donotreply@goodlighting.com. This is not only impersonal, but is also a turn-off. Don’t reply? What do you mean – you want to be able to send me emails, but I can’t write back? *Delete* Show your readers that you are not a robot, and that not only are you personally sending them a letter, but you also would love to hear back from them. So bob.smith@goodlighting.com will serve your e-newsletter much better.
3. Professional design – Ok, your reader has opened your newsletter. Now what? If you want to stand out from the crowd, make sure that your newsletter is professional, attractive and user-friendly. This does not mean that you have to use zillions of images and cool graphics – it just means that the design should match your brand, be clean and easy to read. You can see an example of a newsletter we designed here. This template matches the color of the client’s site, uses their logo, and has a tag line that tells the reader what type of information is covered in this newsletter. There is also a table of contents on the side so that the reader can quickly see what is included.
4. Content, baby, content! – Content is good when it provides the reader with useful information for their own knowledge and use. For example, Good Lighting could publish articles on new innovations in the field of lighting, design trends, and have tips and tricks on how to improve the lighting in your office. Links to related articles that you think your readers might enjoy are also a nice addition to your newsletter. With enough interesting content, you can also allow yourself to publicize your own business by advertising a sale, or offering some sort of promotion. You can have one section with company news, perhaps about new deals that were signed, or new employees.
5. A concise company description – every e-newsletter must contain a non-intrusive, but informative blurb about your business. Tell your readers who exactly you are, what you do, where you are located and how you can be reached. Tell your readers how important they are, and ask them for their feedback so that they can help you improve your newsletter.

E-newsletters can help you develop your business at a fraction of the cost of conventional print marketing methods. So what are you waiting for – start publishing!

Previous – Part 1: Out of site, out of mind

Part 2: What should you write about?

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So you’re ready to send out your first e-newsletter where you’re going to tell your clients how amazing you are at what you do and why they should order more business from you. Don’t do it! Your newsletter’s level of effectiveness is directly related to how interesting it is. A monthly newsletter raving about you and your business is not interesting. It is perceived as annoying advertising, and your subscribers will either ignore it, delete it, or will unsubscribe.

Your goal as the manager of an e-newsletter is to retain your subscribers and encourage them to open and read your mailing. But if I’m not talking about myself, you may ask, how is this good for my business? An e-newsletter is good for your business when you provide interesting content that demonstrates your level of expertise. This formula achieves two important marketing goals: 1) the interesting content will retain your readers, which means that on a regular basis they will be exposed to your company’s name, and 2) by writing articles in your areas of expertise, people will come to accept that you are very knowledgeable in your area of business.

Some examples of articles that are interesting to your readers are:

• “10 Steps to” articles, i.e. “10 Steps to Better Office Lighting”
• “How to” articles, i.e. “How to Improve the Lighting in Your Office”
• Reports on surveys and studies, i.e. “Worker Productivity Directly Related to Quality of Office Lighting, Study Says”
• Links to related articles in your industry

Part 1: Out of site, out of mind

Part 3: 5 Steps to an effective newsletter campaign

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Out of site, out of mind

Out of site out of mind. This saying applies to your business as much as it does to anything else in your life. And in business, you want to remind your clients that you are there and ready to help them.

Even the most successful businesses with the happiest clients should maintain a continuous connection with their clients. You may think that if your customers are satisfied, they will definitely return to you for more. Don’t be so sure. Your business is nothing more than one of dozens if not hundreds of businesses in your field. The competition for attention is fierce, and you need to constantly remind your customers why they have used you in the past, and why they’ll want to use you in the future too.

Retain your customers, and win new ones too

Studies have shown that winning business from a new customer can cost up to eight times as much as getting business from an existing client. These numbers show that investing in your current clients is a worthwhile way to use your marketing dollars. By sending out a regular e-newsletter to your contact list, your company stays fresh in the minds of your clients, and increases the chances that when the need arises, they will turn to you.

E-newsletters have the side benefit of also winning you new clients. If you manage an effective e-newsletter campaign, some of your clients will end up forwarding your newsletter to their friends and colleagues. This type of “viral” marketing utilizes word-of-mouth marketing, which creates one of the greatest levels of legitimacy among potential new clients, since they hear about you from someone they trust. It is also incredibly cost effective, since this extra coverage doesn’t cost you a penny.

E-newsletters have many other benefits for your business, including measurability, immediate response rate, cost-effectiveness, and more, but we’ll discuss these aspects in another article.

Part 2: What should you write about?

Part 3: 5 steps to an effective e-newsletter campaign

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