We’re fortunate to work some pretty amazing clients. I’m sure that a lot of business owners feel that their customers are the best – and they are most likely right. Let’s face it; customer loyalty is what we are all striving for. When your customers are happy with your products or services, they’re going to stick around and recommend you to other potential customers. And if they’re not, we all know what will happen.

The trick is in knowing when they’re happy and when they’re not. I know what you’re thinking. Of course you know when your customer isn’t happy – he/she tells you, right? And if they aren’t telling you something, they must be happy.

We recently spoke to a group of business owners about online marketing. One of the themes of the session was “listen to what your customer is telling you”. For small and mid-sized businesses, this may be even more critical than it is for the “big guys”. It’s a competitive business environment and we all have to work harder to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers in order to keep them happy (and have them continue to do business with us).

Unless you’ve had a conversation with your customers lately, you may not be 100% sure about how they perceive your products or services. Or are you? You can absolutely learn what they are NOT telling you from their online behavior on your business website. If you have a website for your business, you should (and if you don’t, please do yourself a favor and do it ASAP!) have some form of analytics software in place to track your visitors. These tools can tell you much more than how many people come to your site on any given day, week, month, etc. They are also telling you a lot about what they like and dislike, for instance:

• Which pages are most frequently viewed
• Which pages visitors most often exit your website from
• Where your visitors are coming from, i.e. search engines, social media sites, other 3rd party directories, etc.
• How they are finding you in search engines by the keywords they are using
• And much, much more

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of analytics. By understanding the patterns, behaviors and trends, you can create clear messaging that will engage your customers and make their online experience a positive one. Make sure that you are “listening” online, paying attention, and most of all responding.

The various social media platforms that have emerged in the past few years have allowed businesses a cost effective way to market their products and services to the masses.  Among these, YouTube has grown into one of the more popular platforms as it gives people the opportunity to upload and share videos to the millions upon millions of registered users.   From family home videos, to big brand advertisements, YouTube gives its users the opportunity to connect with people through visual content.

With the tens of thousands of videos uploaded per day, many have experienced overwhelming success gaining MILLIONS of views through the process of Internet sharing.  Businesses can benefit from “viral” videos in many ways including gaining exposure to their products while driving traffic to their website.   Take Justin Bieber for example.  The young superstar was first discovered by uploading videos of himself singing at home, which gained immediate exposure and ultimately led to his international success.  These days, someone can become nationally recognized overnight; apply this to your business and the possibilities are endless. Here’s a list of just a few of the best viral video success stories of 2011!

The Force-Volkswagen Commercial

This clever commercial was intended to run in the 2011 Superbowl, but was released early.  The ad went viral on YouTube gaining over 12 million views before it even aired on television!  Currently the commercial has contributed to a boost in sales and has over 45 million hits on YouTube leaving Volkswagen among the most anticipated commercials of the 2012 Superbowl.

Rebecca Black-Friday

One word can best describe Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday”…. awful.  In fact, it was so awful that it gained popularity among Internet users and became YouTube’s most watched video of 2011.  With simplistic lyrics like “Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday, today it is Friday, Friday” Rebecca Black became an internet celebrity overnight and landed herself an interview on Good Morning America, and a cameo spot in Grammy nominated artist, Katy Perry’s music video.

Jorge & Alexa Narvaez Sing “Home”

Jorge Narvaez posted a home video of himself, and his six year old daughter playing an acoustic cover of rock bands, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s “home.”  Little did he know that this video would lead to internet stardom for both him and his daughter.  The post went viral and gained millions of hits which lead the duet to a performance on the Ellen DeGeneres show, and a commercial with Hyundai.