Marketing topics targeted here will be covered in more step-by-step detail in upcoming Top Ten Wholesale Newsletters. But there are plenty of usable tips listed below to recharge a marketing plan and launch at least one new tactic in 2009. Here’s to a Prospero Ano Nuevo.

1. User-friendly web development tools.

Almost half of small businesses have no online presence because web development is considered too costly, technically complicated or time-consuming to maintain … all true when 3rd-party web design cost thousands of dollars. Now, self-managed web design tools are better and easier to use without technical expertise. These tools are free.

· Microsoft Office Live Small Business offers free web-building tools no more technically challenging than a word processing document. Use design templates, drag-and-drop tools, free site hosting and activity reports. Small businesses can opt for added low-cost services: email marketing, keyword-based online ads, payment processing and custom domain names.

· SynthaSite is another browser-based web building site that offers free, easy-to-use design templates; tools to create, edit and publish web sites; and site storage. Extra low-cost services include registering a personal domain name web site.

2. Capture customer and user data.

Rather than depend on “Email Us” links for feedback, you can automate and respond to customer requests with forms services. Forms services let a web site owner set up business-specific fields – for surveys, multiple choice inquiries or product/service questions – which visitors fill-in at the business’s web site. A forms service compiles information from data that customers enter; sends responses; protects data privacy and security; aggregates customer data reports in chart form; and even works with a lead generation program like Salesforce.com.

· Wufoo, from Infinity Box, offers free standard forms services, like those listed above, plus protection from automated SPAM bots and data privacy and protection.

· FormAssembly.com, developed by Veer West, offers easy set-up tools for customer data forms and free data management services for limited traffic sites. Higher volume customer data reports are available by subscription plans starting at $9 (US) per month.

. Need customer-friendly web re-design?

Even merchandise wholesalers and resellers with an established online presence can use periodic facelifts, new content creation and a better GUI – graphical user interface. Best Practices in web design and successful search engine marketing include:

· Map out your unique business goals and cut the clutter.

Over time, web sites can become digital scrapbooks, stuffed with every product or eye-grabbing super sale merchandise offer. You may need to step back and start over, looking at your site from a potential customer’s POV.

How do customers/visitors use your site? Do they always click on the weekly below-wholesale discount merchandise? (For example, the weekly special sale jewelry at J. Good-In or from Jewelry Wholesalers listed with Top Ten Wholesale and Wholezilla).

Are they looking for market trend data and insight, such as best-selling product categories or this selling season’s most demanded brand names? (For example, plug in an apparel brand name of your choice at TopTenWholesale Trends and see a plot of search demand for that brand by clothing buyers, manufacturers and resellers.)

An update or site re-design should focus on the highest-traffic pages, sections and topics you identify from web server logs. Everything else “cluttering” your web pages should be relegated to links or navigation buttons in the left or right columns.

· Make your site searchable and your products findable.

New visitors most often reach your web site through a search. Unless your web content is index-able – keyworded and structured in organized “silos” of information – your site never appears on search engine results pages or web site referral links.

Re-design every web page around 3-to-5 keywords. For example: footwear > women’s > athletic shoes > New Balance Women’s or men’s clothing > outerwear > North Face. Those keywords are anchors for headlines, text copy, bullet point features, images. They become the indexed keywords for organic search results page rankings. And they are the starter list of refined keywords from which you build Ad Groups for pay-per-click or context-served paid search marketing campaigns. (For examples of pay-per-click and display ads in search engine marketing see Advertise With Top Ten Wholesale ).

· Invest in On-Site Search.

Even the best click-through rates from search results pages or paid search ads may not take a new visitor to the exact page inside your site that meets their needs. For instance, a search on digital cameras may be too broad for a searcher who does not yet know what size, portability and image storage capacity are most important. If your business invests in database services that offer a site search box on every page, you may hold onto that first click visitor, with a one-step redirect to the exact product page that meets their search query. The alternative is for your visitors to click BACK immediately (logged as a bounce) and simply click on your next competitor listed on an external search results page.

4. Allocate ad budget to best converting media.

To note economic challenges – reduced sales revenues, slowed marketing budgets, lower credit lines available to major corporations as well as end-buyer customers – is to state the obvious. Less obvious is the different ROI in different marketing media, from recent survey results.

· According to ad spending analysts at eMarketer, ad spending is slowing most rapidly in offline media (TV, cable, radio, print) and is shifting to online advertising. However, the efficiency rates of different online advertising formats is not equal. Online display ads – clickable banners, buttons and images – show lower customer conversion rates than search advertising conversions. Or, to state the economic obvious:

· Search engine marketing – organic listings ranked on page 1 or 2 of search results; pay-per-click search ads served on keywords – is not only holding steady during the economic slowdown, but search marketing is absorbing budget pulled from offline ad media. And it has a better conversion rate (thus, return-on-ad-spend) than online display ads.

5. Personalized e-mail marketing

Personalization and retargeting in email marketing is a big topic, as well as the hottest trend in online marketing. But you’ve probably already seen it.

· Amazon.com combines User Ratings (5 stars), User Reviews and a huge database of topic-clustered purchase patterns (aggregated from all Amazon product sales) to offer Suggested or Recommended Products. These related Recommendations appear (1) real time, as an online purchaser proceeds through specific book or music title searches and samples in sections subheaded, Purchasers of this item also recommend …. and

(2) related or cross-selling recommendations delivered through personalized emailings.

· Test a targeted e-mail marketing strategy by contracting with a vertical search or industry site. A one-time targeted emailing through, for example, ASD/AMD Trade Show Managers or Manufacturers.com or Value Price Expo or Top Ten Wholesale accesses a special interest audience. Recipients of an industry-targeted emailing are pre-qualified as opt-in subscribers or trade show attendees.

· Specialty marketing services provide personalized product recommendations to merchandise marketers, which are versions of Amazon Recommendations (high end), and Capture Customer/User Data from Tip #2, above (low end).

One marketing personalization service is Choice Stream , which automates and adds to web sites what it calls Micro-Targeted Product Recommendations to increase an e-commerce site’s revenues and customer loyalty.