Next Communications has game-changing, affordable online marketing strategies that help you grow—even in a down economy.

Part one of a two-part article on succeeding with low cost online marketing techniques.

Learn how to gain market share without a big budget.

Economic uncertainty has caused many companies to pull back hard on marketing activities. Despite this, some companies are not only able to succeed, but actually gain market share at the expense of their inactive competitors by honing an affordable, lean online strategy that focuses on content generation, tactical publicity and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In this two-part series, we'll reveal how you can develop an integrated online marketing presence, drive traffic to your website and reduce your lead development costs, even in the face of reduced budgets.

Your website is not online marketing.

First, you need to acknowledge that your website does not constitute online marketing. In truth, it doesn't "go" to anyone. They must find you. Are you willing to bet your future on that passive approach to marketing?

But how do you reach out when budgets are tight and advertising is cut back? The answer is to drive traffic with a continuous stream of user content combined with active, broadly distributed news and publicity. Producing and distributing news stories, features, tutorials, case studies and more not only floods your information into the media channels—if the right techniques are employed, they can also improve your critical search engine page ranking.

An affordable, tightly integrated online strategy can help you steal market share and leap ahead of your competitors. Here's the first part of our strategy:

Your best investment: Tactical Publicity.

News and feature stories are credible. They can communicate many of your advertising objectives in the guise of industry news. They carry the implied endorsement of an editorial-based third party instead of a self-interest promotional message from the company. As one of the largest media buyers in the industrial and technology segments worldwide—and one of industry's most trusted resources for media stories—Next Communications has close relationships with key editors and journalists, as well as leverage with publishers with whom we help create and package high-value news and features. In our core segments, we've put more companies "on the cover" than anyone else. And if "PR" and publicity are successful given the limited shelf life of print, it's not hard to recognize the tremendous value afforded by adding electronic media distribution to the mix. While your news still hits the front page, in the electronic media, links to the stories remain largely active and searchable for years.

Capture the spotlight when ad budgets go dark.

The bottom line is this: for what might be the cost of a single ad insertion in one trade journal, Next produces, pitches, distributes and places invaluable editorial content or feature stories about your products and services. Negotiated personally, this content is not only sent to the key editors and publications in your industry, but also phased and distributed to literally thousands of print and electronic outlets worldwide, news feeds, distribution networks, bloggers and industry resources. Content that builds the confidence and loyalty of existing customers. Content that is easily and affordably repurposed and packaged to all edges of your enterprise. Content that gains widespread distribution, and endures online in perpetuity.

In part two, we'll discuss the vital importance of SEM in the new economy, how we can help drive more traffic to your website, and how a stream of content and publicity contributes to improving your search engine ranking.

If you need answers now, contact your Next account executive, or Dennis Gallaher, president at 952-934-8220 or email him at dennis.g@nextcom.com for a free consultation. Explore our work, tactics and results for others at www.nextcom.com