New website but the same Minnesota Web Marketing News.

As a Minnesota company that is interested in all things web marketing related, there are going to be some changes that better reflect a different view of web marketing. There isn't anything new in marketing, just our own personal discovery and application of it. So as things change on our website, we hope that all the information is helpful.

As for this blog, it will continue as it always has through the website transition, looking for good examples of Minnesota web marketing ideas and web sites. So far, I've found many useful ideas and am impressed with the amount of Minnesota based business that has successfully staked a claim online. Thanks for reading this news blog in the past and we look forward to providing good web news for you in the future.

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Boats, salesmen & the local angle of the internet.

Yesterday I was thinking about the onset of winter in Minnesota and I got to thinking about next spring and summer. When living in Minnesota, you enjoy the winter, but look forward to just what lies ahead. What I was thinking about was outdoor recreation and how we no longer have access to a cabin, so I began to look at boats on the internet as a good family recreational alternative. For me, I could never buy a boat online, that's not what I'm talking about. I wanted to do a little research and found a local boat dealer that seemed to have good information. It's called MarineMax and here's what the website looks like.



It's a boat dealer like many others and they are more than just a local company in Minnesota, I think they were started elsewhere in the US. What I looked at the web for was to find some dealer locally which I could go see later in the day. So I went there and found what I was looking for.

At first I was asked by a sales type if they could help me as soon as I walked in the door, which as you salesmen out there know, you should never do. I said I would be looking around, then upon looking around fir a while another salesman shouted from across the room, "So which one of you has the big checkbook?" with a big grin. It was funny and totally disarming as I was with my son. With my defensiveness gone with one question, I asked many questions and look at one of their nice 18' Searay boats. His name is Duff Carlson, he's at the Oakdale, Minnesota location. He was a great salesman and a veteran of car sales which he was a small dealer himself at one time. It was nice to talk with him and he left me with a good impression of their whole operation. Now, I didn't buy a boat yesterday, but I got the information I needed and the help was so good, that I'm sure if we do buy a boat, I'll be heading back to MarineMax.

What's my point in this story as it pertains to Minnesota web marketing? Here it is. Like a lot of people, I search on the internet and buy on the internet, but sometimes there are products or services we need to buy at a physical store. They came up well in a local search and had outlets I could go visit. I think there are many people like me and statistics show that many people search online to find something locally. Sometimes you must see the product and in the case of boat, that's for sure!

The other aspect of this is the excellent sales help I got without being pushy. Duff was an excellent saleperson and I'm reminded that you can have all the great web information, high listings and all that, but if you don't have good people, it's doesn't matter. Good business is good business no matter where they find out about you.

Web marketing for Minnesota business, RealWebMarketing.com

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More searcher being done on the major search engines.

New Media Life magazine has a great article on the statistics of where people are doing their searching. One might think that some of the new offerings might be gaining some marketshare on the major search engines, but that's not the case. It shows that the large search engines not only get the most traffic, it seems to be increasing for them as well.

This would make sense as the relationships they've developed over the years with many other sites will only enhance their position. It's also a fact that the major search engines have great mindshare, they come up first in the mind as a place to get information. Take a look at the tables they have in the article. There are some things that caught me by surprise, like the fact that Excite still gets a lot of traffic and that the brand of Yahoo and MSN outstripped Google. Obviously the portal aspects of those two help with the brand recognition. Also I see that Dogpile gets on the list at the bottom, but that's a big deal as a meta-search engine.

The rich get richer it seems and when it comes to internet search the big are getting bigger. So how does that affect Minnesota web marketing? The focus of making a good website or marketing campaign must continue to focus on the large search engines, but there are ways to use the smaller ones to your advantage as well. Even a small search engine number can be in the millions which is always helpful. It all depends on how you approach it looking for the opportunities that other miss. Let us know if we can help you find those hidden gems of opportunity which can help get your Minnesota business more action.

It's the real deal for web marketing, RealWebMarketing.com

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Firefox browser becoming more popular.

The Mozilla Firefox browser is becoming more popular as time goes on. It's fast, it's being updated constantly and people want an alternative to the IE browser from Microsoft. This is a local article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press on what some people are saying in our area.

I think it's good for all of us that we have choices on the internet. Now with a big emphasis on local results, it more impportant than ever to stay on top of what the online industry is doing. This may not deal directly with a Minnesota web marketing campaign, but the changes are good to keep track of.

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Minnesota web marketing, a unique frame of mind.

Minnesota is a wonderful place to place down roots. I've been here for almost all my life and although I wasn't born here, I'm a native of over 40 years. One off the positive aspects of doing web marketing in Minnesota, is the mindset of not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. The attitude of humble service is one that I think is successful in a subtle way. Web marketing is more than just yelling the loudest online. In fact, most people reject this and we certainly do here in the upper midwest.

When it comes to web marketing, I believe in a dose of honesty, humble attitude and a belief that what you may be offering may not be for everybody. Take a look at the presidential election last week. It's a marketing campaign, selling the candidate of your choice. One was pushed at the American people by the media big time, John Kerry. The other, President Bush was seeking to draw people with the message he had. It makes a difference and it certanly did for the President.

Maybe what I'm talking about isn't so much a Minnesota web marketing attitude, but a humble marketing frame of reference. This type of mindset says "here is what I have and here's how it's beneficial to you", not "here's what I have, like it and accept it." There is a big difference. Two companies could be offering the same products and have the same message, but which will people be naturally drawn to? The one that is drawing you in or the one that is pushing you? No one likes to be pushed.

We here in Minnesota make judgements based on some beliefs and family history that goes back over 120 years for some of us. We don't just accept what's pushed at us, we like to make our own decisions, but isn't that true of everyone? We all have cultural and individual biases. To have a successful web marketing campaign, we must all pay attention to that too.

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A picture framer with a good web design.

One of the fun things about blogging about Minnesota web marketing is when you run across a well designed site from several angles. The one I'll review today is picturethisframed.com, a site for a framing store. Take a look at it and see the many things that are done right.

• See how this web site has a focus? It states "your source for picture frames ready made, collage, hinged and 4x5 picture frames", it doesn't get anymore direct than that and the theme is developed throughout the site.
• Notice that the toll free number is prominently listed on top of the page and easy to see. There are many people that like to order over the phone even if they find it on the web.
• They have listed their store hours at different locations which makes it easy for people to stop in. Many web searchers like to buy locally, especially if you're going to get something framed that has personal value.
• The page itself fits all the main information very well making one feel comfortable about this business. How so? With something so well organized, it boosts confidence in buying, believing they won't goof up your order.

This site has a nice look and feel and I would give it high marks for good Minnesota web marketing. The one thing that might be improved is it's visibility. I found it through a directory but it doesn't really get a high search ranking that I could tell. It's so well done that it has a potential to get a high search engine result, but would have to be tweaked a bit.

Real reviews and solutions for better Minnesota web marketing, RealWebMarketing.com

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An increase of 19% in online sales.

In the Internet Retailer, they mention some research that shows an estimated 19% rise in online sales this year. The activity of people purchasing online has been improving steadily as they become more confident with the process and believe that they will get what they want without a lot of hassles. It's been growing over the past few years and looks to continue with no end in sight yet.

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Simple, but don't you just love it? Gunsofthepioneers.com

These days with all the felt need to make a site real snazzy and jazzy, let me take you to a simpler web site that does do some things right. The site is gunsofthepioneers.com and it's not sophisticated website nor does it pretend to be. I like it anyway! It's a business that sells guns and mostly vintage guns at that. The second picture on the page is wonderful of the owner and his wife. Do these people look Minnesota or what? I can't look at the site without feeling like I know these people, they are like all of us here in Minnesota and that's one of the things they do right. Here's a list from a web marketing perspective what I see.

• An identification with regular people, they look like me and you. They could be your mom or dad and have this business selling vintage firearms. There is no sense of pretense, they're in Minnesota business to sell something!
• They display the guns they sell with big pictures so you can really tell what you're getting, nice.
• They sell a very specific product, one that people may be looking for and hard to find. That is usually a good thing to sell online. Desperate people look to the Internet when they can't find it anywhere else!
• It tells a partial story and gives people the information to call and buy a gun.

Now they don't have a shopping cart and some organization could be done on the site, there would be some easy ways to improve that, but it accomplishes the main purpose, to have someone call and buy a vintage gun. When it comes to web marketing in Minnesota, this simple site still can get business locally or nationally. It makes a personal statement without saying it outright, and that has to make people who find them glad they did.

For real Minnesota web marketing it's RealWebMarketing.com

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Local search will change retailing.

The Internet Retailer has a good article on searching for local business when making a buying decision. It looks as though the major search engines are seeing this as a golden opportunity to gain market share in an area they couldn't in the past. There is a slew of yellow page and newspaper advertising dollars that can be tapped into making it lucrative. There's also the fact that nearly two-thirds of buyers are searching online hoping to find a local business to work with. Some, once they've found what they want online, then visit a local store.

From the Internet Retailer of November 2004:

"We can make the search results so much more meaningful to both the consumers and the advertiser," says Justin McCarthy, head of local sales for Google. "We can give consumers the names of retailers that have outlets near their homes. And for advertisers, the leads we give them are customers who are much more likely to buy from them because they are customers who have stated a preference for a store located nearby."

I don't think that this is a new trend in marketing. I believe that there are many people that have been finding things online for some time now and then shopping it locally. It's just that the search engines are catching up to what the reality is. Now that they see they can tap into local ad money, then they began to move. There are some small shopping sites that are geared toward the local search result and it should be interesting to see how they grow.

This is changing the way people go to market with products or services and will give new opportunities as well for new retailers.

It's real for web marketing and better results, RealWebMarketing.com

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Local shopping is a coming trend, for Minnesota too.

Local shopping is becoming an up and coming trend on the Internet and will affect businesses in Minnesota. There is so much money involved in local advertising that many new companies are coming out of the woodwork to compete for it. ShopLocal.com is one of these sites where you put in your zip code right up front and then it will gives you specials from stores in Minnesota.

Many of the stores that I see in their listing are all the major, huge chains like Target or Home Depot. This type of local search doesn't really help the mom & pop local store which I think is what they're all trying to portray. When shopping for the types of these things that these huge chains carry, don't we pretty much know what they have and don't have. I would say this, that most people go to these superstores first and then when they can't find it there, go to the Interent. So in some ways, it doesn't change anything. In this case, it looks like just another way to push this weeks specials at the big corporate store.

The ShopLocal site is nice, but I'm not sure of the value. Because it's all the major stores, this kind of site might not be even worth it based on how people shop now anyway. These services would have more value if they were more across the board for business, not just huge corporate stores. I saw toilet paper on this site as a selection. Sounds bizarre to me because I don't order bathroom tissue over the Internet, I buy it from the store I always go to anyway. The more I look at this, the more I'm dissapointed in it. People like to shop locally and do like to patronage smaller stores too and that seems to be missing right now. I think that a lot of people in Minnesota are these type of buyers, they like to make a local business more successful.

No hidden agendas, no fluff, RealWebMarketing.com

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