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Local Search Marketing with Google Places: 7 Ways to Get More Clicks & More Business Guaranteed

By Scott Harvey in Featured

If you want better search engine results (and more clicks, and more business), and you haven’t paid attention to “Google Places,” you need to do so right away.

Why You Need to Claim Your Spot on Google Places

• Google has stated that one out of five searches on Google is related to location. That translates to 2.6 billion “local” searches a month, and that number is increasing 50% per year. (Yes, that’s “Billion”-with a “B.”)
• If you’re a family law or divorce attorney in Irvine, CA for example, you want to show up when someone does a Google search for “divorce attorney orange county,” or some variant of that – which happened over 56,000 times last month. Maybe your niche or location can’t boast that kind of volume, but when you get your Places page set up and positioned correctly, it can still have a dramatic effect.
• A good Google Places listing can provide a valuable bump in your search engine ranking and in your ability to reach and interact with prospects and customers. You can even post real-time updates to your Places page to promote a sale or seminar or other event, put up a coupon, or communicate anything else.
• Google Places has become so important that it has become a marketing niche all on its own, with “local marketing SEO” consultants that do nothing but help businesses use it properly.

Continuing the Sales Conversation After The Pitch

By Jason Hier in Featured

Once you have made the sales presentation, there is always the dilemma of how to stay in contact and keep the lines of communication open, whilst still trying to add value to the wholes process. Collaborative selling is certainly a process which can be mutually beneficial to both parties concerned. The potential benefits of reducing risks, getting great quality and service, making sure the correct solutions or products are delivered at a price that is fair and equitable, with no misunderstanding is clearly in everyone’s interest. To achieve this there needs to be an easy and sociable way to communicate but within the context of a business environment. With the increase in availability of collaboration tools this article looks at how collaborative selling can be delivered, along with the potential benefits to be gained.

There are countless books, videos, seminars, gurus, and webinars to name but a few, on how we can improve our Selling capability. There are many aspects to the whole Sales process itself, which is why there are so many avenues of information on the subject. In today’s world, people have become more able to say “No”. Although in the UK, we still find it hard to say NO, (unless the salesperson is really pushy, rude and not very pleasant) only then, we might say No! This word, although only two letters is one of the most powerful words and probably the word that most people do not want to hear – as it is a word of rejection, it is negative, you haven’t got the answer you wanted. Because of this, people who are selling (and we are all selling something at some time) find it difficult to decide once they have made their “Sales” pitch, how do you follow up without being too eager, or too pushy.

Alternatively if you wait too long will they think that you do not care, not interested or lazy, until you get yourself into such a state of indecision, you do nothing – which is even worse!

Technology innovation will continue to impact and change our culture, behaviors, and the way that we will communicate with one another. One of the outcomes is that this continual innovation of technology has provided a buffering or a “cyber wall” between people, both in business and socially. Socially people are texting, while in business they use email. Technology has become a virtual wall for people to hide behind. Is this a good? Time will tell – but we need to be able to have the confidence to communicate in a way that is positive, active and adds value whether in business and or socially.

In the UK, “selling” as a job, has not always had a good standing as a profession. Yet whatever business you are in, without Sales, nothing happens until the Sale is made! No orders, no money coming in, no money to pay salaries and we all know what that means!

Our lives both in business and privately will be changed dramatically by social media. In business this is happening at an alarming rate and it’s not just Business to Consumer, it’s Business to Business as well. Business Social Media communication is not a fashion trend, it is a fundamental shift in how we all communicate, both socially and in importantly, within business.

As I have said before, this “Business Social Networking” is a way to “humanize your business” in terms of its sales and marketing, customer service and support, when using technology. It is clear to me when there are various tools out there like Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn and You Tube, the ability for Businesses and Customers to consume information, write about it, vote on it, send it on to other people, who in turn do the same in a viral way is quite amazing – and it is virtually FREE to do – the only real cost being your time. One of the earlier disadvantages (that’s if is/was really a disadvantage) is how do you accurately measure the ROI? Well if you search on YouTube for “Social Media ROI socialnomics”, you can see from the video people and corporations are managing to measure and get their ROI in very positive way.

Most of you will be receiving Tweets, email messages, Videos, webinars, and podcasts to name a few, which if you select carefully is hopefully interesting, informative and adds value to what you want. This is social media and I include business social media when I say this, but interestingly it seeks you out, the customer, allowing you to engage and start collaborating real time. Taking this to a more specific business situation, I just recently created a presentation using a product called sharpcloud. One tool that is very visual and collaborative and has been on the market for sometime. The recent addition of being able to create a presentation within your sharpcloud Story (Marketing Content, Sales Presentation, Strategy, Technology Roadmap and the like) allows you to deliver a social but thoughtful and helpful introduction to your Story. When people first go to your online Story, you are able to guide them through Views of your Story, in a way that makes sense, whilst also allowing the viewer to pause the presentation, so that they can explore your story, write a comment, vote on an Item and continue the presentation by pressing the Play button again. This becomes a journey of discovery for the viewer, which becomes more interesting, interactive as well as an enjoyable “business social” experience

So “Death by PowerPoint” is no longer an issue. Being able to make your “sales presentation” via tools like sharpcloud, in the linear way that you would do so with PowerPoint is a familiar experience for most viewers.

However, one of the main benefits is when the potential customer or client asks that question, say about costs, that you do not have in that PowerPoint deck, then it’s a missed opportunity. Well in sharpcloud, you can quickly click to a view that visually shows the information to answer the question. You could also link to media content such as videos, other presentations, documents, sales brochures, testimonials, etc within the story that is either part of sharpcloud or hosted on You Tube, or some other content platform. Once you have answered the question, you can carry on with the presentation.

So now that we are able to make a “Sales” presentation and not worry about what slides to include or create, or have ready for a “just in case” question, lets come back to how we can continue this Sales process. As with other social technologies the key element is the ability to collaborate.

The ability for you and your customers to remain connected and be able to communicate and collaborate in a business social way, is a major advantage when compared to the more traditional approaches. I am not saying we forget about these approaches, but when combined with a collaborative selling approach, over time this will have a major positive effect on you, your client, your brand and your business and organizations future success. It is highly likely that your competitors are not even thinking about this let alone doing it!

The fact you can mutually learn and provide feedback back to one another, (sales/presenter & client/audience) and be able to bring this knowledge and information back into your respective company and organization not only improves the sales engagement, but facilitates in reducing the sales cycle time. A major benefit for the marketing group is being able to gain insight directly from clients with regards to the relevancy of the marketing content that they have generated and what they need to focus on in the future. Collaborative Selling is mutually beneficial to all parties involved in the process by being able to remove/reduce the risk and deliver clarity and certainty with regards to products and or services.

This “Collaborative Selling” will help to influence outcomes in a positive way, by creating a “real time umbilical cord” relating to decision making, personal experience, costs, as well as fostering and nurturing both the sales person and customers relationship, into a trusting and collaborative one.

One last point, which is relevant to all of us is costs.

Using business social networking to deliver Collaborative Selling is a relatively low cost proposition, with free social media marketing channels, coupled with commercial products such as sharpcloud, cannot be over looked when comparing to the traditional corporate ways of Sales and Marketing. By getting traction with your market, developing relationships and increasing your brand awareness on a global scale using collaborative technologies, means businesses and organizations have to give serious thought and consideration of how they stay engaged and keep the conversation alive with their clients and customers, during a highly competitive sales process.

Eventually we will all have to do it, small or large otherwise those who do, will win!

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Jason Hier is an expert in using sharpcloud to help businesses deliver highly effective sales presentations in a very visual and collaborative way. By being able to keep the conversation alive after the initial sales presentation positions both supplier & customer into a unique position to collaborate & innovate – developing the optimal solution. Get a FREE 1/2 day consultation today www.roelto.com/freeconsultation.php

Understanding Web Advertising

By Jerry Bader in Featured

More money is wasted on advertising than any other business function. That is not to say businesses shouldn’t advertise but rather people should understand how advertising works. There are many ways to characterize ads, but for our purposes let’s make it simple and separate advertising into two distinct approaches: saturation and emotional.

One of the things I’ve learned over a long career is that business folk invariably take their lead from the wrong sources. Small and medium size businesses look to the mega corporations to learn their tricks and adopt their attitudes when they have little in common – advertising being no exception. Since our clients are mostly medium or small size companies we try to help put some of these issues into perspective.

If you’re big enough and have the money available, there are all kinds of marketing initiatives you can invest in, but if you have a limited marketing budget you need to be smart about how and on what you spend your advertising dollars. And the most effective and cost efficient place to spend those dollars is on your website. Yes you need to attract people to your site, but if once they arrive they find it lacks intriguing, engaging content, then you’ve wasted your money. So what tactical approach should you take to deliver your marketing message?

Small Business Survival – Market Online or Die

By Jan Riley in Featured

A recent report by Borrell Associates predicts that small and medium sized business will triple their non advertising spending online in just 5 years. That means a cool 1.63 billion dollars for online marketing that does not include PPC, Banner ads or other advertising. It is also expected that during this same time offline advertising will shrink to 19% of a marketing budget. With all that money going into the internet what will businesses be buying and how will it affect your business?

Non- advertising spending = web marketing to small business

Part of this phenomena is becoming clear; many small to medium sized businesses consider any money they spend on the web to be “marketing”. Unlike offline budgeting which divides budgets into categories like: advertising, building maintenance, PR, marketing and sponsorship a new majority of business do not distinguish between web related expenditures.  To them it is all “marketing”

The best way to market online is not to market at all

On one hand everything you do online can be marketing while on the other the most effective tactic is not marketing. This makes measuring the success of online promotional programs nearly impossible for the average business owner who is used to putting out an ad and waiting for customers to call or walk in the store.

This attitude is indicative of a widespread lack of understanding about what really works online. There has been a fundamental shift in marketing that has accompanied the internet. This shift is simple but profound. You cannot sell anyone anything online they have to want to buy it. Why? Because online – the user is in complete control – period. Your customers can compare prices, features and plans in seconds. It is literally easier to click away form most pages than to navigate them.

Consumers are accustomed to landing exactly on the information they seek and have less tolerance for confusing navigation and irritating shopping carts. This means that money spent on creating a customer buying path or streamlining your shopping cart process can pay off.

Websites are not books plus nobody reads the table of contents

Website visitors are entering your website on pages other than the homepage which means that your primary message needs to be clear throughout your website. No matter what your business is, people are searching for relevant information. They have a problem and want to know if you can help them solve it. This concept is nothing new, yet the vast majority of business websites still continue to focus only on themselves or make visitors jump through hoops to find a contact number.

How do you know what your visitors really want -start with the questions people in real life ask you. Write down the top 5 questions, problems or concerns your customers have. Now write the answers just like you are speaking to a real person. Be specific and substantiate your claims.

Make sure the content is clear, simple and not full of jargon or sales speak. Give examples like: “A client came to us with ____ and we helped them _____. ” “Our pricing programs are individual and based on _____ , ______, and ______. ”   Always include a call to action and whenever possible make it personal. These examples would be: “We would love an opportunity to answer your questions in person, please call 123 234 6789 and ask for Mike Williams.” Or “Are you finding what you need? If not, one of our operators would be happy to help you find the item you are looking for and answer any questions. We look forward to speaking with you, just call 123 234 6789″

Your customers expect to find the information they want online and businesses large and small are finally wising up to this fact: without an effective web presence – your company might not exist. The good news is that standing out online can be as simple as providing more specific and relevant information that people really want.

Jan Riley is the CEO and founder of LeadMastersUSA, a website marketing company founded in 2004 and based in Atlanta, Ga. Her entrepreneurial spirit and internet experience along with a talented staff has made LeadMastersUSA synonymous with innovative marketing tactics, increased ecommerce profits and business websites that build relationships. We believe that the true power of the internet is NOT technology – it is communication. People buy from people. Discover how your website can connect, capture and convert visitors into customers with our 3 minute weekly video series at www.LeadMastersUSA.com You can contact Jan at 678 318 7515.

How to Pick an SEO Firm

By Jennifer Horowitz in Featured

SEO is the foundation of your marketing campaign – at least it should be. Aside from any other marketing that you participate in, you should also make sure your site is ranked in the top of the engines so you can tap into the millions (actually over 400 million) searches performed daily.

So, how do you pick an SEO Firm? It is a very important decision.

I was talking to a man recently who told me the problem was he didn’t even know what questions to ask, let alone how to evaluate the answers.

Here is some guidance on what to ask and what to expect in response.

Do you have any initial or set up fees? How much and what are they for? Are there ongoing fees and how much are they?

They should be able to outline all fees and tell you exactly what is included. Different firms price things differently. If they require full payment up front, that may concern me. Most firms will require some payment up front, and that is to be expected. You need to look at what they are proposing, make sure it is clear to you and make sure you are OK with it.

Is monthly maintenance necessary?

Any SEO Firm that knows what they are talking about should tell you that maintenance and monitoring of rankings is required to ensure you don’t start losing rankings. If they tell you that you will lose rankings as soon as you leave them, they are lying—or more accurately they are just guessing. They don’t really know for sure. However experience shows us that rankings do tend to maintain until the next major algorithm shift and then if no one is maintaining them for you, they may begin to drop. SEO is not the kind of thing you do once and then you are done. To maintain and hopefully even increase your rankings, you need to have someone continually working on your behalf. Alternatively, you could learn to handle some of the maintenance items yourself. But the key is to realize that someone needs to monitor your rankings and work on your in order to hold on to your top rankings and grow them. Don’t forget the engines themselves reported that approximately 25% of searches each month are never before seen phrases. So, at the very least you’ll want to monitor what new phrases are popping up and make sure you are getting exposure for them.

How long is my term of service?

Typically you should hear anywhere from 3—12 months. Anything less than 3 months isn’t long enough to see any matured results. Six months seems to be the industry standard middle ground. With six months you aren’t locked in too long, but it does allow time for the campaign to mature.

Do you offer a Guarantee?

Contrary to popular belief, guarantees aren’t all bad. You just have to make sure you aren’t being promised something that no one can actually deliver.

- Top rankings in less than 30 days? Not likely.

- Guaranteed amount of site visitors or conversions? With regular SEO and no other services no SEO Firm can guarantee the precise number of visitors or the conversion rates.

- If you are told you will get rankings on a precise keyword within a precise amount of time, that just isn’t possible unless they are doing PPC or have magic fairy dust.

The kind of guarantee that is safe is the kind where the company states they don’t control the engines and can’t predict exact timeframes but they will not stop working until they have delivered what they promised (ex: 20 rankings within the top 20 for 6 months—so they may have to work 8 or 9 months of real time to deliver the full 6 months of “guaranteed” time.) This offers you protection but it also honest and lets you know that the Firm does not control the engines.

Do I own the work you do for me? Where does it reside?

The answers should be: yes you own the work (once it is paid for in full) and it resides on your server. If they are hosting content on another server or another domain, you want to think twice before getting involved.

Do you provide regular reports and how often are they provided?

You should be provided reports once a month to show the results and your site’s rankings.

When will I start seeing results?

That is a question that varies from site to site. Your site’s history and competitiveness of the industry are big factors and the SEO firm should try to answer honestly considering what they know about your site. Any blanket statement is just a guess. They could also tell you their average time for other clients and that is a good indicator of what you could expect.

What engines do you submit to?

This could change as things in the industry change. Basically you’ll want to look at the list of engines they give you and make sure you have heard of them all. Most Firms focus on the Big 3 (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) and then about 6 or so other engines.

What about past results?

Do you provide references and testimonials? The answer should be YES! They should be happy to show off past results.

What techniques do you use to optimize my site?

An ethical SEO Firm will focus on content and on-page optimization as the foundation. They should also look at whether you are in need of links and may include linking as part of their strategy. More people tend to get links on their own, but they don’t focus on the on-page portion, so maybe all you need is the on-page work. The SEO Firm should evaluate that and let you know what your specific needs are.

They shouldn’t hide any text or code on your site, and they should be willing to explain every step of their process and not want to hide any information from you.

If they tell you they have a special relationship with Google, or proprietary techniques that should be a warning sign to you.

Do I have access to anyone on your staff, so I receive personalized service and can ask questions at anytime?

The answer should be yes. SEO can be confusing and you need a Firm that will work FOR you and WITH you.

Any SEO Firm that is worth working with should be happy to spend time going over each of these questions with you. Selecting an SEO Firm can feel intimidating but if you use these questions as a guide and follow your instincts, you should be fine.

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Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

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