What Small Businesses Can Learn From Comics
October 19th, 2010 by
Man of Steel Vs. God of Thunder, You Do the Math
Along with being a search marketing expert (that’s right, I said it), I am a huge fanboy (that means I like comic books A LOT). Very rarely do my two worlds meet but recently there was an article posted about the social media battle of rival comic companies Marvel Entertainment and DC (Time Warner) and I could not resist responding and explaining to how small businesses can win at social media. Despite my unending love for DC Comics, Marvel Entertainment does far better jobs at internet marketing. This post will explain how you can make your small business’s internet presence “marvelous”.
Why Marvel Wins at Fan Interaction
It's a Dinosaur in a Dinner Jacket
When you compare the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Marvel and DC, you can notice that Marvel has a larger and more active fanbase. Why I would love to say this is because Marvel has more interesting characters (frankly a red t-rex with a dinner jacket trumps a sociopathic underwear pervert with a bat fetish IMO), but the truth is Marvel makes an effort at interacting with their fans. This is something I tell clients over and over, replies are key to gaining and sustaining fans. The more you reply the more successful and active your followers will be. Though there may not be any measurable ROI in tweets, you can increase your brand awareness locally, as well as, have a have a group of individuals who you can promote specials and discounts immediately.
Why Marvel Wins at Site Design
Around the turn of the century, there was a stark increase in light-weight, interactive business sites. The age of minimalism is over and businesses like Marvel know this – people like when content is interesting. And what is more interesting than promoting new products, specials offers, and general business information? I am not saying your site should be a Trapster’s sticky cesspool (if you don’t get the reference, its not important), but it should reflect what you are promoting current and updated often. Marvel Entertainment does a fantastic job of promoting their different business lines on their homepage in an easy and interesting way. The easier and more interesting, the longer visitors stay. Visitors who stay are visitors who will buy.
Marvel's Homepage Services Their Various Product Lines
Why Marvel Wins at SEO
SEO is the backbone of success for any business and obtaining high ranking on new phrases related to your business is key to dominating search results. Marvel has done so with the emerging digital comics market. Not only are they the first and second Google positions on the phrase “digital comics”, the Amazon.com result mentions them by name. Digital comics is a market which has high ROI than the standard print format, so dominating these position in organic search gives Marvel an advantage. Another astonishing fact, DC Comics’ site doesn’t appear anywhere in the first two pages of search results. Applying this methodology to other industries is simple, research new technology and developments, create landing pages and start optimizing before competitors are even aware of the potential.
Marvel Dominates "Digital Comics" Results
As internet marketing becomes more and more important to small businesses, SEO and social media will continue to mutate. However, being active with fans, having well thought out site design, and great positioning on emerging search phrases, will always be important to growth. So the next time you start questioning the value have having an internet presence, remember you can either be the Invisible Woman in the room or you pull a Dr. Doom and dominate the web for your small business.
Superman Vs Thor Image From Wizard Universe
Devil Dinosaur image from Weekly Crisis
I’m a graphic designer and illustrator and just put up my first website this year after never having done so. I’ve made my blog the place where you can get to know me and then I direct to the site. I still have much to learn about SEO for myself, but these ideas help. Thanks.
No prob @Dennis. Even though it is focused on small businesses, it could certainly be used for self branding on the web.
Great article! Dinner jacket wearing dinosaurs, keyword strategies, obscure villain references, site design and soc media all in one. Good stuff, my inner nerd was fully engaged.
@Nick, awww thanks.
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