Archive for September, 2008

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Lets start by what it’s not.  SEO will not sell your product or service, it will not phone you, and will not increase your bottom line and it won’t make your website look cool.  It will help you achieve your goals, and it’s those goals that need to be defined first to then know how to measure SEO performance. 

SEO Goals: What are they?

SEO is simply making search engines (mostly Google) place your company, product or service near the top of the search list.  In a way it’s a complex dance between you, your competitors, search engines and yea, customers. Often we forget the last critical part of SEO, customers, and how we can gain more.  Many SEO experts focus solely on ranking and keyword density for your target market.  But, what if no one calls you?  Is it optimized? Why are we optimizing in the first place?  Don’t get fooled in to thinking that we are optimizing for search engine’s, even though that is what we are doing.  Ok, that sounds confusing.  From my perspective any good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) program includes as a critical measurable conversion or solid lead activity.  Saying that then I think we are optimizing search engines for maximum lead (or sales) potential.  I suggest this is where you start and not with keywords or other traditional marketing collateral. 

SEO Lead Generation: How many new customers will I get?

Leads will increase based on how knowledgeable you are of your target market.  It is the same for all marketing campaigns, are you targeting the right people, is your message focused enough that ‘they get it’.  First, start with understanding how your customers view and think of you and the products and services you offer.  Many businesses make the mistake of focusing on internalized self importance.  What I mean by that is companies often feel that they somehow mean a lot to the customer.  More often it’s the product or service you offer that is important, they don’t care what the company name is or how great you think you are.  They want your offering and want to know more about it.  Ask your customers why they bought from you, what they used to search for you and if they didn’t search for you online ask them how they would.  By getting inside the customers mind will get you to where you want to be faster and easier.

SEO Measurement: How to measure search engine optimization

So now we have a list of keywords or phrases from our customer base and hand them over to the SEO guru.  You’re told that it will take time and isn’t a precise science.  OK you have to wait.  How long, and what for? It does take time for the search engines of the world to pick up and rate, grade RANK your site and activity. While you wait for all this to work revisit the issue weekly.  Yes weekly and touch base with customers just to make sure you are targeting the right words.  Now don’t get me wrong here, don’t go changing every week just because a new customer found you in a way you didn’t know of.  Add it to your list so when you revise your strategy you will have historical data to work from.  Maximize your efforts; here is my simple search engine optimization list.

 Target keywords and phrases (your customers use not you)

Write good content that reflects these keywords

Don’t try to fool search engines, they are smarter then you

Understand and use Meta Tags effectively

Customers buy not search engines. design your site for people.
 

 So there you have it.  Quick simple no black magic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for small business.

There is one common thing every business needs regardless how small or large they are, customers. So how do you get them? It is common to start off a business as a result of having or knowing several customers that need your product or service. These critical customers are part of the foundation of who you are, or start off as. It is rare that these customers alone will sustain you through the years. So what do you do next? Some typical tactics are to have referral programs giving the referring contact some sort of financial or business reward. Often businesses give more then they would normally, discounts or freebies. 

Giving takes from one hand, your other one!

We all make mistakes and those who succeed learn from them.  But, what if you’re a small business with a limited budget, can you afford to make any mistakes?  No you can’t.  So now that the pressure is turned up high and the sweat is dripping from your forehead what are you to do?  We learn from our mistakes and those around us, so why not look around and see what other businesses have done right and wrong. 

Advertise online

 The Internet is home to many charitable causes, Web sites, and other ways that people can help support their favorite charities right from the comfort of their homes or offices with the simple click of their mouse. Many of these charitable organizations and Web sites also offer businesspeople and marketers ways to get involved and help their favorite charities through great advertising and sponsorship opportunities. By getting involved you can help wipe out world hunger, save the Amazon rainforest, find cures for breast cancer, or anything imaginable in terms of great and worthwhile charitable causes that do good. You will find various operating formats as to how your business, products, or services will gain exposure on these charity Web sites by way of an advertisement or sponsorship. However many have a standard operating format which goes something like this: A person gives to a charity via a Web site and they receive a response e-mail confirming their donation and some facts and figures about the charity or cause they have donated to. Included in the e-mail confirmation is an advertisement of the sponsoring business letting the giver know that this business also gives to this particular cause by way of donation or paid advertising sponsorship. The business’ advertisement includes a link that the person can click on to get to that business’s Web site or additional contact information. This is a great system because it enables you to spend advertising dollars in a way that they will do good to wipe out any number of world threats, and it helps to build goodwill for your business in the eyes and minds of consumers.  

AMR Media (http://www.amrmedia.com) is one such company that has built a reputation on providing leading website design in the Durham Region.  I would check them out if you’re looking for a website designer in the Durham Region or in Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, or Whitby.

SEO Branding

Many organizations that display a dynamic brand name see branding as a subset of marketing management. This is demonstrated by an organizational design that puts the customer at the center of the business. Those organizations recognize that marketing is the name of the game: If you don’t sell, you aren’t in business.
   
Unfortunately this by no means describes all organizations. For sure, marketing has made progress in boardrooms lately. The competitive pressure and the fast-changing environment of the last decade or so have pushed many more organizations to be in tune with their market, e.g., TI in the US, Renault in France. Nevertheless, there are still executives who declare that: "marketing is not a priority for us."

Although those skeptics would be interested in increasing sales and profitability durably, they resist the idea that the marketing function can help them reach that objective. In fact, they may confuse long- and short-term planning:

Coca-Cola’s customers would surely shy away from Coke, and would perhaps take to the street altogether, if the taste of the iconic soda changed daily from bitter to sweet. Building trust in a brand therefore requires consistency over a long period of time. It is the task of strategic marketing.

   
When a Kmart department store launches a promotional event, the chances are that Wal-Mart’s market intelligence will pick it up immediately and counter it if necessary. Thus, the quick reaction time of Wal-Mart builds sales, as it can annihilate its competitors’ price advantage in almost any region. This is a short-term plan, and it is the job of operational marketing.

It can be said that the short-term of today is the long-term of yesterday. As such, operational marketing must fit into strategic marketing.

Operational Marketing

Operational marketing is concerned with all the tasks popularly called marketing, including advertising, merchandising and promotional events. Strategic marketing is concerned with long-term objectives and planning. Among other things, it covers trend analyses, customer service processes, intelligence gathering processes, product development, and branding. In many successful companies, such as Nike, Dell or Staples, the branding strategy will deeply influence the entire organization, as they seek to touch their customers in the same way at every contact-point. For example, Staples, an office-supply retailer, aims at making the purchasing experience easy, as communicated in its trademarked slogan "that was easy." In practice, it may mean training the front-line personnel to customer service processes (e.g., to minimize check-out lines), designing the website for instant product reviews and actual delivery time, and scheduling fast delivery of orders and pick-up of returns. All those organizational aspects thus reinforce each other and converge to the same strategic objective.

In addition, those marketing-focused companies build brand equity that is bankable. Indeed, once a brand starts being recognizable, it can have a dollar value in the eye of investors and lenders. As such, it goes to the core of business valuation, a metric that is the livelihood of Wall Street analysts and venture capitalists. We may think that it takes decades to generate brand equity unless you are an Internet business; but the shoemaker Nike, for instance, demonstrated that a top global brand could be built in less than 15 years.

As a strategic factor, branding can also contribute to a corporate strategy by erecting entry barriers against competitors. For example, when you think about safe family cars, the chances are that Volvo will jump to mind. Volvo is so entrenched in its position of safe family car, that it would be foolish for any other car maker to challenge the Swedish brand on its turf.

Branding can also help a corporation deliver on its going-concern mission. The strengths of the Harley-Davidson and the Ford Mustang brands both saved those products from disappearing at a time where their American competitors were collapsing.

Any business organization has the power to take control of its future and can have an emotional impact on its audience. It requires understanding the role of marketing as being different in the short- and the long-terms, with strategic marketing and operational marketing being two distinct activities.

Although branding is as much art as science, it goes far beyond cute logos and curvy package designs. It is a discipline that has the power to lead and influence; a discipline that belongs to the long-term strategy of an organization.      

AMR Media (http://www.amrmedia.com) is one such company that has built a reputation on providing leading website design in the Durham Region.  I would check them out if you’re looking for a website designer in the Durham Region or in Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, or Whitby.

Selling 101

When selling, you have one minute to pique your prospect’s interest. Here are some tips to make the most of your time.

Q: I’ve always equated selling with telling, and lately I’ve noticed that my prospects cut me off when I am giving them my pitch. What’s the best way to get my point across and win the sale?

A: I would imagine that this month’s question has value to all of us in sales and marketing. Let’s face it: Buyers are more educated than ever before. What we sales and marketing types need to focus more on is understanding our prospect’s world–and the best way I know of to do just that is to ask intelligent questions. Here’s a rundown of the best questions to use and when to use them. My strong suggestion is that each and every one of us should ask a whole lot more questions and speak a whole lot less.

When interacting with a prospect, you must first seek to understand what’s going on in the other person’s world. Then and only then will your ideas be accepted and understood by the prospect.

The best way to do this is to set strict limits on your own "talk time." Keep it under 60 seconds. Yes, you read right: You must never, ever speak for more than 60 seconds without asking for approval to continue. This approval comes when you ask open-ended "prompting" questions. Generally speaking, these questions:

    * Cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.
    * Do not lead, control or try to manipulate the other person.
    * Enable dialoging.
    * Begin with the words "when," "what," "how," "why" or "where."
    * Require thought to be answered.
    * Encourage the other person to reveal feelings.
    * Build rapport.

The opposite of an open-ended question is a closed-ended question. Closed-ended questions, unlike the kind we’ve just examined, put an end to effective dialoging and will not get you any closer to a second appointment. Therefore, you should totally avoid this type of questioning as a means of getting approval to win another 60 seconds.

Example of closed ended questions

One example of a closed-ended question might be, "You’re interested in attracting new customers, right?" The best place to use the closed-ended question is in a situation where you need to validate or confirm what you think is going on in your prospect’s world. Generally speaking, closed-ended questions:

    * Are useful to give feedback during a dialog.
    * Can be used to obtain specific information and/or confirm facts.

During a dialogue, if you need to make sure that you’ve heard the prospect correctly, you can use what’s called a clarifying question. These questions, too, can win you a fresh 60 seconds. A good clarifying question might begin with the words, "So, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying that…". Warning: you should always preface your clarifying question with a statement such as this and then creatively paraphrase what you think your contact’s main point is. It’s a really bad idea to parrot back what you’ve just heard your prospect say. That approach may be perceived as condescending, sarcastic and disrespectful. Generally speaking, clarifying questions:

    * Secure the other person’s approval and prove to a greater degree that you’ve got a good understanding of what he or she said.
    * Express in your own words what you just heard.
    * Clear up differences in the definition of words and phrases being used.
    * Clarify the meaning of "global" words (like "always" and "never").

Typically, once you clarify with your prospect, you can then use a developmental question to move the dialog in a desired direction to further understand the prospect’s purpose and/or result he or she wants to achieve. These questions, too, can win you another 60 seconds of time to talk–once the contact has responded to your question, of course. Generally speaking, developmental questions:

    * Encourage the other person to elaborate on what he or she just said.
    * Begin to make it possible for the other person to show his or her true feelings about the topic at hand.
    * Obtain further definition of what’s under discussion.

Optionally, you can also use a directional question to win another 60 seconds. These questions steer the dialog to a certain direction that a developmental question just uncovered. Directional questions are like a roadmap of your conversation and allow the dialog to take another path, one that’s beneficial to uncovering the prospect’s purpose and needs. Generally speaking, directional questions:

    * Move the dialog from one logical topic to another.
    * Invite the other person to participate in an informational exchange.
    * Can be used to replace a closed-ended question you were tempted to ask.

Important: Don’t fall into the trap of using directional questions to control or manipulate the prospect in any way. This will destroy any business rapport you’ve built and reduce your chances of getting a second appointment.

Another question type you can use to earn another 60 seconds of talk time is called an opinion question. This kind of question is extremely helpful in revealing where a prospect stands on any particular issue, and it can be used to give you more insight into someone’s unique needs. Opinion questions are also a nonthreatening way to ensure that the other person is actually engaged in the dialog. As a general rule, opinion questions:

    * Ask a direct question in a nonconfrontational way.
    * Get the other person to speak frankly and openly.
    * Allow the opportunity to share feelings.
    * Show esteem and respect for the other person.
    * Help to extend and prolong dialogues.

Finally, you can use what I call a social proof question to justify another 60 seconds of talk time. This is an indirect way of getting the other person to realize that his situation is similar to that of other people you’ve worked with. As with any other reference to a third party, there is the chance that your contact will respond favorably to what you cite within the question. On the other hand, there is a chance that the social proof you introduce will be looked upon as competitive or irrelevant to what’s being discussed. So these questions can be tricky. Generally speaking, social proof questions:

    * Introduce a third party that is relevant to the discussion.
    * May increase confidence that you can address the purpose and needs of the other person.
    * Validate the other person’s reasoning.
    * Can be used to address concerns or problems before they arise.

Intelligent use of each of these question types will encourage your prospect to begin to show his or her true feelings about whatever subject is under discussion. Build business rapport with prospects, and they’ll be less likely to tune out while you’re delivering your pitch.      

Helping business grow is what AMR Media (http://www.amrmedia.com) does best.  Call them today to find out how you can brand your business, create a website with search engine optimization and grow your bottom line.