Tag Archives: Internet Marketing

Bloggers have been using RSS feeds for years – many people use their preferred feed reader to quickly get scan the content of many blogs at once. If you have timely, frequently updated material, RSS feeds are a great way of syndicating content.

RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) allow webmasters to deliver a summary of the site’s content and these can be updated as the site is updated. By delivering headlines, snippets of the content, or a full view of what is offered on the site, the reader can be drawn to the site, give them information or both.

While big business is now attracted to what RSS feeds can offer, I am generally seeing these being used by magazine and newspaper publishers to boost readership. But what about boosting sales?

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With Google Books pages coming up in the top of Web Search, having listings in Google Books should now be key to publishers’ online marketing campaigns. While there is no doubt of the value of Google Books to those looking to increase book sales online, there is some concern about the lack of order in Google Books search results.

The results in Google Books search results come from two sources, the Google Books Partner Program and Google Books Library Project. The Google Books Partner Program allows publishers submit their book lists at no cost. Publishers have a choice of four formats for the submission.

1. Full view where you can view or download the entire book. This would be of no value and actually would devalue the book itself, and I gather this is generally for the Google Books Library Project.
2. Limited preview allows the user to view a limited number of pages of the book.
3. Snippet view allows the user to view a few sentences surrounding the search term.
4. No preview available shows no content from the book.

Personally, I think that limited preview is the way to go. I like to read a few pages of a book when I buy it in a bookstore, and I feel the same way about making my online purchases, and I have no doubt that many people feel the same way.

Google Books has every page of your book scanned

Google promises to protect your content “by the same security as Google.com’s search data”, but here is how it works in a nutshell:

[They] scan the full text of your book because [they] want people to be able to search all its content. But users can only access a limited number of pages to determine whether they’ve found what they’re looking for.

I am sure there will be some complainers that will think: “ooh that’s bad that they want every page – they are being sneaky and have something to gain”. Sure, they have a lot to gain, but it is a win/win situation for everyone involved in my (humble) opinion.

It’s true that the results in Google Books search are a little “unruly, but they have Google has to rank them somehow. Universal Search is of concern to some in the SEO industry, I think it’s all very interesting. I wonder how Google book search ranks the book results. I want to look at this over the next few weeks for fun.

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So recently I have been putting together some ideas about marketing to children online using my somewhat funny Build-A-Bear model of marketing success, quite appropriately. I looked first at some of the regulations, quite appropriate, with regards to marketing to children. Then I discussed the importance of interactivity when marketing to children, with regards to advergames. Not only do children enjoy playing these, but they create an “emotional bond” between children (and adults) and the product that is being promoted. Then I discussed the importance of viral marketing techniques that will attract children, and also make them the biggest marketers for the site.

Now I want to speak about the third pillar in the Build-A-Bear model of marketing success: innovation.

Innovation and marketing to children online

One of the things that makes Build-A-Bear so great is that the product can change over time. The clothes can fit with trends at the time, and the stuffed animals also change for special causes or limited edition seasonal plush animals. It is the constantly evolving nature of the brand that I believe they will continue to be a success for years to come.

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So recently I have been putting together some ideas about marketing to children online using my somewhat funny Build-A-Bear model of marketing success, quite appropriately. I looked first at some of the regulations, quite appropriate, with regards to marketing to children. Then I discussed the importance of interactivity when marketing to children, with regards to advergames. Not only do children enjoy playing these, but they create an “emotional bond” between children (and adults) and the product that is being promoted.

One thing that you can say about children: they always get more excited about the secondary products that come along with the primary product. The Build-A-Bear stuffed animal is popular, but really the reason children want to go back again and again is for the clothing, shoes, hats and all the other accessories that you can get with the stuffed animal. And the same goes for kids online. When trying to catch the attention of children and draw them to your site I think it is important not to promote that which you are trying to sell. Your marketing strategy cannot be: Come check out the new Build-A-Bear on our site. It should be: Come check out the games, e-cards, points systems, and other viral marketing strategies. It is also important to offer children a great variety of different options to suit their tastes. The importance of “accessories” on a website cannot be stressed enough.

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