Just when you thought you had seen and heard it all, Amazon takes on a brave move to take business away from small business owners. This has caused small business owners to complain to the Retail Industry Leaders Association about the unfair competition.

Amazon has released a free app for iphone and smart phone users so that consumers can then go into any brick and mortar business, find something they are interested in, scan the bar code and see if Amazon has it at a lower cost.

This is the reason that small business owners are so mad. This is not really comparison shopping, it is more of a search for Amazon by users of the app. If the shopper finds what they are looking for, instead of buying it in the store, they will go home and order it online, get a discount for using the app and avoid paying sales tax.

And, to top it off, the new app comes out just before Christmas when all shoppers are trying to get in last minute purchases as cheaply as possible. Many business owners see it as an unfair advantage to Amazon. It could hurt an already shaky economy for small businesses.

The price checker app will check multiple items simply by scanning the bar code, taking a picture or speaking out loud what the product is. Of course, the product has to be an exact match. You can’t compare a Sony Playstation to a Nintendo. But, it is still easy to see why business owners are hopping mad. If a lot of shoppers use this new price checker, all they are going to do is visit several stores, compare the prices in the store to what Amazon is offering, and then a potential sale is lost.

It’s not that business owners don’t want Amazon to have any customers, it’s the fact that it is an unfair advantage. Brick and mortar businesses have to have prices a little higher because of sales tax. Amazon customers do not have to pay sales tax.

All in all, Amazon is not on the friendly list where small business owners are concerned. But, hopefully, most shoppers will want it now no matter the cost and still buy it while they have their hands on a product instead of having to wait for it to come in the mail. Especially here at Christmas when the mail service will be way behind and a chance of a present might not arrive in time.

Google has announced that it will soon add 100 new channels to its video website YouTube. These channels are being produced by some top-tier entertainers including Jay-Z, Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal, and CSI creator Antony Zuiker.

There is really nothing surprising here. Google is on track to take over the world – or at least to unseat Howard Stern as the “king of all media.”

OK, all kidding aside, this looks like an opportunity for advertisers. These channels will need sponsors and who do you think they are going to go after? You, of course.

This is no time for cynicism. Many of these shows will be perfect places to advertise your business. For instance, if you sell medical products directly to consumers – particularly sports athletes – then Shaquille O’Neal’s channel could prove to be a profitable advertising medium. I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

YouTube channels have the potential to reach a larger audience than most TV and cable programs considering that it’s a global delivery system. Advertising will likely cost less per viewer than traditional TV advertising. So it looks like a win-win for advertisers and channel producers. I think the future of TV advertising could very well go by way of radio advertising in the late 20th century. It will develop into a small niche of its own.

Regular readers of the Small Business Mavericks Internet Marketing Blog know that I am a big and vocal proponent of online marketing. Blogs, articles, e-zines, social media … I love it all.

But you’ll never hear me tell you that you should abandon every form of traditional marketing. That just isn’t the case.

Business cards. Yep, you need them. When you go to that off line networking event, you need something physical to hand out to people so that they’ll remember who you are.

TV, radio, brochures. Yes, they’re useful. They all have their place.

Even outdoor advertising has its place in your marketing arsenal. But what about that old mainstay known as the Yellow Pages? Is it necessary?

Today, 80%-90% of consumers begin their search for new products and services online. Most people will look for a phone number and address online. If they don’t find the particular business they are looking for, then they’ll call up the one they can find. That pretty much kills the Yellow Pages, doesn’t it?

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars for Internet marketing. Get you a basic website, make sure your physical address and phone number are on it, claim your business in Google Places and Bing and Yahoo! Local, then do some modest Internet marketing. But do it in conjunction with traditional marketing tactics that still work.

If you look at the top 20 keywords that Google makes money on with its AdWords service, you’ll find that 4 out of the top 5 are all about money. Here are the top 5 keywords on which Google is earning its gold:

1. Insurance
2. Loans
3. Mortgage
4. Attorney
5. Credit

Education, technology, and computers also have multiple places within the top 20. I can understand technology and computers, but education? I think education is in the top 20 right now because the economy is down, and when the economy takes a hit people typically go back to school for updating their skills and training for new professions. That’s why you’ll see education and training in Google’s top 20 income earners.

Money. Like sex, it sells. And that’s why I think it’s Google’s top earning keyword category. When money talks, people Google.

So what can you learn about this for your online marketing knowledge? Not that you should target those keywords in some way to attract new eyeballs to your content. Rather, understand the human motivation behind these keyword placements. Insurance companies are willing to pay top dollar for ad placements because they realize that they have a product that most people deem a necessity. Life and medical insurance sell, and everyone needs them.

With mortgage and loan salvation being a hot topic right now for a lot of people, it’s easy to see why these are hot keywords at the moment.

If you understand the motivation behind what makes something popular, then you can duplicate it for your own marketing plan. Maybe not perfectly. Some things just don’t translate well. For instance, how do you turn a necessity for insurance products into a marketing plan for shaving cream?

Nevertheless, understanding what motivates consumers, buyers, and advertisers will help you create better marketing collateral for your business – online and off line.

Some people call it “integrative marketing.” I think that’s a good phrase, but regardless of what you call it, small businesses struggling in a down economy should spend a little time thinking about how they market themselves. Cutting marketing out of your budget altogether shouldn’t be an option, but you have to pay attention to where your dollars are going.

Online marketing has traditionally been less expensive than offline marketing, and in many ways it is. But if it doesn’t produce any results, it could be more expensive.

That’s why you should look carefully at where every marketing dollar is going and one way to do that is to sync up your online and offline marketing efforts. What does that mean? It means that your message across all marketing channels should be consistent. You might target different segments of your market through each channel, but your message ought to be same.

For instance, if you sell yellow widgets at discount prices, then try to keep the focus of your online and offline marketing collateral on selling the benefits of your proposition. Don’t focus on yellow widgets in one medium and discount prices on another. Rather, focus on the best benefits in every medium through which you advertise.

Marketing is basically the same in the 21st century, with a little bit of a twist. Consumers are tired of being interrupted. They want to feel like they have more control over what they see. So pull them in, don’t push.

If you’ve ever wanted to start your own holiday, Chick-Fil-A can teach you how. The fast food restaurant inspired hundreds of thousands of people to dress up like a cow and get a free chicken sandwich. That’s pretty impressive.

When it comes to marketing – traditional or internet – it’s OK to get wacky.

Wacky sells. It inspires. It builds buzz, and that’s what you want in your marketing plan.

Starting your own brand holiday is a great way to build buzz for your product or service. Hallmark has created several holidays just so they can sell more greeting cards. So what kind of holiday could you create to sell more of your product? And how can you tie that in to your local area or get your customers to get involved? Giving away free or discounted products is one way, but it’s not the only way.

Here are some holiday ideas for different types of small businesses:

• Save A Sheep Day – Sell clothing? Have your customers show up at your store for a party wearing only polyester, or any clothing not made of cotton, and let them shop for free or at a discount.
• Landfill Appreciation Day – For grocery stores, have your customers show up with their own non-plastic shopping bags. You know those little jobbers they’ve started selling now made of cloth material that you can use over and over again? Customers who show up without one can get one for free.
• Nutjob Sunday – If you own an automotive shop and you are normally closed on Sundays, open the doors one Sunday for a couple of hours and offer free tune ups or tire rotations during that time.
• Midnight Pillow Talk – For local linen stores, have a midnight sale on Saturday night. Give away free pillows with purchases of $50 or more.

I hope you see the vast potential in this type of marketing. With the right approach, you can probably get some free media exposure. All you have to do is think a little creatively. Create your own holiday. It’s an awesome marketing technique.

Ever wonder how you can use online sources for off-line marketing? There actually is a website that is perfect for this and that was created specifically for that purpose. It’s called Meetup.

Meetup allows you to create groups on any topic. You pick a location, start a group, and start congregating. Really simple, right?

Yes, sort of. But there’s more to it than that. Just like any group you start in the real world, there’s ongoing work involved. But Meetup does allow you to promote your group in a very affordable way. Because Meetup is a popular website, many people use it to find groups that meet around their interests.

Let’s say you want to start a group that meets weekly to discuss the best ways to use sneakers. This makes sense since you own a retail shoe shop. You decide you want your group to meet in the back room of your store so you start a Meetup group and advertise that your group will meet at your store location (provide the address please) on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. when your store closes.

As an incentive for getting people to show up at your sneaker group, you could offer an after hours shopping special to anyone who becomes a member and has attended at least six meetings in the last four months. That’s good incentivized advertising.

All Meetup does is give you a platform. You do everything else. But because it’s a popular platform, you can use it to promote your off-line meetings and use your off-line meetings to promote your website and your business.

Meetup isn’t free for meeting organizers. There is a nominal fee, however, you can charge your members a fee for attending your meetings (but you should think about it before you decide to do that) and you can take sponsors for your group to allay the costs of your Meetup group (some groups even turn a profit). Any way you look at it, Meetup is a great way to use the Internet for your off-line marketing efforts.

A lot has been said of Facebook Pages. The general consensus is that they make great marketing promos for businesses of any size. They are particularly useful for small businesses. However, you still have to promote them.

How do you promote your Facebook Page? I would bet that you do most of it online through your other Internet marketing channels. These might include:

• Your website
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Social bookmarking
• HubPage or Squidoo Lens
• Facebook advertising
• Online display advertising
• Your blog
• Mobile phone apps

The list could go on, I’m sure. But have you considered offline marketing?

Offline marketing still works. In fact, a very powerful way to market any business is through the integration of online and offline marketing channels. You could use any or all of the following offline marketing channels to drive new traffic to your Facebook Page as well as your website.

• Television
• Radio
• Magazine advertising
• Newspaper advertising
• Telemarketing
• Seminars
• Brochures & Flyers
• In-store displays
• Direct mail
• Even word of mouth

Facebook Pages have become their own stand-alone marketing materials for many businesses. I wouldn’t recommend them in lieu of a website, but many businesses use them to great effect. A lot of those businesses promote their Facebook Pages offline. Maybe you should too.

While reading one of my favorite blogs recently I was struck with a reminder that many small business owners still do not understand Internet marketing and why they may need it. Of course, being that I am an online marketer who works with small businesses, I already knew that. What I wasn’t quite aware of is that it may be my own fault.

You see, the article mentioned that most Internet marketers are so busy using industry speak that we don’t realize that our small business target audience doesn’t understand what we are saying. So it made me look at myself. Do I do that?

I could very well say “Yes.” I know that I use terms you are probably not familiar with – like SEO, PPC, meta tag, social media marketing, etc. etc. If I do, please forgive me.

But what I’d like to know is what your business is actually struggling with. What challenges do small businesses have today in introducing their businesses to their target audiences? I’m sure all the challenges are not online marketing related, but maybe they are and you just don’t know it.

So I’d like to open up this post for comments. Tell me your most pressing marketing challenges and what have you done to overcome those hurdles? Has it worked?

In an article on creative marketing, Jeff Hayzlett, former chief marketing officer at Kodak, says your marketing should build tension. What does he mean by that?

First, let’s put the quote into context. Here’s what Mr. Hayzlett had to say about marketing and tension.

If you’re a marketing leader in your organization, you should be creating tension, he says. “Shouldn’t we be causing tension in the operation…getting into healthy debate?”

What does he mean by that? You certainly don’t want tension between you and your clients.

The tension he is talking about here is the tension caused by offering your customers a choice. A good example of this tension is the Pepsi Challenge. When Pepsi blindfolded people and put two cups of soda in front of them then asked them to choose which one tasted better, they were creating tension. What if the majority of the taste testers chose Coke? Or what if no one chose Pepsi?

But people did choose Pepsi and Pepsi was there to capture that on video. And they made a successful marketing campaign out of that.

Are you building that kind of tension in your marketing message? You should be.

You don’t have to trash the competition to build tension. You just have to offer your customers a choice. Make it creative and give them reasons to choose you – then present that tension as your marketing message.