Paid + Organic Search The Big Winner For Business

Many companies have moved to using the web successfully, but are paying high prices for paid advertisements on Google.  Yet the same companies are nowhere when it comes to earned placement on Google in organic search.

If you are paying for ad campaigns on Google, improving your organic reach too, can multiply the effectiveness of your Pay Per Click ads. So - if you have a budget for paid search, it makes a lot of sense to take the extra step of making the most of the potential for organic search too.

There is ongoing debate on whether paid links get more clicks than organic links on search, the smart business owner will hedge their bets - and make sure if they are already committed to paying for results, that they also have the free clicks covered too. And if you have paid advertisements on Google AND your business comes up in the organic search - that's peace of mind for the customer and means they have more ways to check out your business and feel confident that your business is trustworthy and reliable.

Paying for ads while basic SEO is not done

When I am reviewing websites for clients, it often happens that the website they have been using for some years is missing vital basic code and features that would make the site perform much better. These basic simple changes don't cost or even require a whole remodel of a site, just the insertion of the right information in the right place.  These changes are in the page code and are for Google,  not visible on the page by a user.

Other incremental changes to the layout or content of the website on the page for viewers can also dramatically improve the performance of the website. Together, these small changes can give the business a lot more bang for their advertising buck.

To look at it another way, not fixing these basic issues on the website would be like turning on heaters in all the rooms in the house and then leaving all the doors and windows wide open.  It can warm the house somewhat, but wastes a lot of money for a poorer result than might be achieved with just closing some of the areas that are letting the heat out.


So your website performance can help your business get found by those searching for what you do. That's pulling people in.  Social media on the other hand can push people who were not already looking to see what you have on offer. That Pull + Push element can multiply your traffic to your site again.

Not only does social put your business in front of social contacts you know - it also puts your business in front of people who they know!

Not just what you say but also how you say it

In improving your organic search you will be adding content (which Google loves). You need to have information on the website that informs those searching for what you sell. It should be written in a way that is a match for what customers would search for, makes sense to them, and provides them with useful information to satisfy their query. Your website also needs to have fresh information added regularly so that Google will keep coming back to index the website.  A simple way to keep your website both fresh and relevant is to add a blog.  Authentic reviews or testimonials reinforce your social standing, and this is becoming the new currency of value. You want to be seen as The Authority on what you do. The go-to guy or gal.

Now it is easy to fall for the spiel of the consultants selling advertising online. Your role as the business owner is to ensure that you get the advice that is good for you - not just the advice that is good for the advertising consultant.  With your PPC you want to be paying for the words that you want - and not paying for the words that are not useful to you, as many are. That's a whole other issue though, one for another time.

The internet is such a fantastic tool for business. Use it well, and be successful as you can be!



Related articles

Claim your free business listing on Google ... before someone else does! 
5 tips that will improve your website performance 
Local business: Tips to online marketing 
Getting started with your business blog
Social media help for your business

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Press Release Flop! Do Yours The Right Way

Every day businesses are trying to get the message out about how good they are and trying to entice us to take an interest in or notice them. Content marketing is the new way to present information as part of an overall strategy and to work well, needs to be the right message for the appropriate people you want to see it, the context a good fit for bringing your information together with the people who will value it and showcase your expertise and ability to solve a problem your target group wants fixed. 

Today I opened this email. I don't have any idea who this person is who sent it but their business is not remotely a product I would have any need or potential to buy.

"Hello, 

 I am contacting you to let you know about the very latest press release published by my company. 

Please click on the link below to access it. 

 Do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information. 

Thank you very much."

What's up with that? 

Now this is wrong in so many ways I barely know where to start but let me check them off on a list for you.

1. This was sent by someone I don't know and would never have signed on to get notices from which means it was not something I opted in to receive. This is precisely the definition of spam.
2. The business sells products that I not only have no need for, but have no possible use for as they are specific industry products that don't apply to me in any form, in any way.  This is an indication of a poor understanding of marketing principles. Not all activity is good activity.
3. An email to tell me about a press release is not in my interests, it is only about them. No WIIFM.
4. Something they want me to know about could be in the email but this not only was an email of no possible interest or use to me, but required me to take action to go to another site to see it!
5. There was no framing of the purpose of the email to lead me into having an interest, no consideration of benefit the reader would get from it and no targeting to get it into the hands where it could be of some practical use
6.  This was sent via a "PR App" which demonstrates once again, the technology alone is no substitute for a good well considered strategy and an understanding of the marketplace that uses technology.
7. While sending me this email had no possible upside, the capacity to harm the reputation of the company by using poor practices in their marketing is a real and present risk for the company.

What's a better way to approach sending press releases?

Firstly the notion of a press release needs to be reviewed.

A press release should from the outset, follow some guidelines for any well crafted communication. It should contain information that is relevant to the audience, clearly state the important elements to them and form part of an overall communication strategy.

Your audience that you want to reach, largely finds their information online. That's where they put their attention, so that's where you need to be putting your attention.  Many and heading to most people now are accessing the internet using  mobile phones or tablets. Your information needs to be presented in a way they can view it.

Business need to understand the new marketplace and what the expectations are for those accessing information. Google and other search engines are getting better at finding quality and relevant information for those searching, and penalising sites that post junk.

We are inundated with a ton of information every minute of the day in email and other advertising and marketing messages that are in our face online and offline. Getting cut-through means grabbing the attention of those who have some interest in your niche and having a message that will attract their eye.  Press releases, by their very nature are self-serving so they should provide something for the reader, not just suck up time that the reader will resent when having read it, realise their time was spent for utterly no purpose or advantage to them. Nobody will thank you for that.

So, what to do?

• Review your current activities in marketing and getting your business known in the marketplace
• Audit the success or otherwise of your efforts to date
• Develop a strategy for your business that includes marketing and operational aspects to promote the business energetically and across the departments
• Ensure your marketing plan has a detailed Content and Context strategy and program
• Create a good template for your press releases as part of your content production and schedule at appropriate intervals. 
• Segment your data base to ensure that your messages are getting to the people who can use them
• Put steps in place to be able to monitor and usefully analyse the results of your efforts.
• Take care not to confuse the technology with the strategic purpose. Promoting the cause of your business comes under the umbrella of marketing broadly, but it essentially always, always, a business issue. 

Related 

Remember to claim your free business listing on Google 

Guess what? If you have a business, you are now a publisher! Or need to be. 

Inbound marketing is the new old-fashioned way of doing business 

Get your business story out to the marketplace and new customers
Blogging for business - what to write! 

Social media marketing articles every business owner can use
Technology, the internet and social media for business - a productivity issue

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Nurture Your Customers - Why and How

UPDATE:
I wrote this blog back in 2011. Four years later, everything in it is still valid. Everything in it is still not being done by the majority of small businesses. Meanwhile large corporations have moved into neuromarketing and can predict our buying habits over time, using algorithms and fancy online tracking software, and know what we do as pattern when shopping, more clearly than we ourselves do.

They will be coming after your customers if you don't lift your game. They may be already.

Many businesses seem to have missed the fact that their clients over the past are the key to promoting future growth and so they fail to pay due respect to this vital element of the business.

The importance of capturing good quality information on customers (and people who are not yet customers but have expressed an interest in the business) cannot be stressed too highly. These are people who have had experience with your business and in the case of customers, have already 'voted for you' with their money by spending it with you.

So what DO you do with a client list?

First thing you do is make sure you have a good amount of the right kind of information about them.

Capturing Data

Some (minimum) things you definitely want, if you can get it:

First and last name
Date of Birth or birthday (depending on your industry)
Postal address
Email address
Mobile phone number
Purchase history
What they bought
When they bought it
What they spent
Family status Single Married Children etc

What you do with the information once you have it will depend on the strategy you are going to adopt for your Client Nurturing Program. Yes, you have won these customers to your business and paid a lot of money in marketing and advertising for them to find you in the first place, so now you have them, make the most of it.

Your existing clients will always be a more economical source of new business than anything else you do to gain customers.

Many businesses throw money at new people who have never supported them, in the form of special offers, discounts and the like - and completely ignore their existing customers!

Your customers:

Buy more things in the future
Influence friends' purchases
Talk about the things they buy
Can recommend you
Appreciate being appreciated

What are you doing with your existing customers to nurture them and encourage them to come back and buy from you again? What are you doing to capture good responses from customers who are happy with you in the form of referrals and endorsements? Do you even know where to start to put a Nurturing Program in place?

This should be your priority to get this done.

If you don't know how, ask.
If you don't know who to ask, ask me.
If you think you know how to but you're not sure where to start, get the help you need.

Spending money on marketing without getting this in order is just pouring money down the drain.

How long have you been doing that?

Start using your head.

Your customers need to hear from you.




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Love Your Customers. Engage.

UPDATE: 

Taking a look back at past articles I have posted on this blog has been interesting. While not much has changed from a strategic viewpoint, the environment around us has definitely changed. Who could have predicted that Facebook would be the place whole families connected online - even grandma and pop! 

Engaging with customers who are online and those who are in their social circle and could be your next customer, has never been so easy. Small business has never had the leverage they do now to spread their message - and I don't mean advertisements - and attract people who love what they do. 

Yet many small business still have no real website that has the capacity to work for them in this way. The changes that would make them function are often not big, but they are significant changes in so far as how well they work. The look of the website may not even be changed, though most websites tend to be poorly designed visually and with respect to functional navigation layout. Sadly few have much in the way of quality, relevant writing that is on target for their product and customer demographic. 

In other words - they have nothing that someone looking for that information and to buy - will find from those stores. They have not bothered to make it available - not to Google, and so not to customers. 

Facebook for business pages, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, your blog - all of these have the capacity to drive traffic to your website - people who are interested in your product. See my articles on Blogging for business for more information.

Please, let this be the year you get that sorted for the sake and welfare of your business. - Lindy

The social media world is abuzz with messages on how the future is all about caring for customers and your network, showing you care and being authentic in our engagement with people online.

I see this and I know it's true, and I wonder if this should give me hope that business will soon come to understand this too.

Now while I'm prone to be optimistic, I am perhaps not optimistic enough to expect that this will happen for the great majority of businesses. More than that, I predict a great many businesses will continue to not 'get it' at all, and will keep doing what they are doing, without regard for the changing face of business and the new way that people are coming to expect to deal with businesses as they look to buy goods and services.

For the smart business owners, they will realise The Jig Is Up... and if they want to be relevant to customers, if they want to have their loyalty and their ongoing business, then they have to smarten up the way they do business. The smart ones, will do just that. And in doing that, they can own that segment of the local business, if that's what they want and if that's what they incorporate into a strategy to accomplish this as an outcome.

Enter the era of Engagement. Well it isn't such a new era. Years ago my parents opened a corner shop to let them earn money when my eldest brother was hospitalised for quite a long time. The corner store was a great example of local business engaging and relating to local customers and responding to the market. The shopkeeper was a part of the community and 'they knew where you lived', so your reputation was important, as was your ability to provide a service model that accomodated the needs of your customers and made your business an integral component of their day-to-day life.

In 2010 that's still the way it is. I hear business owners say "customers aren't loyal any more". And they are probably right. Customers have no reason to keep coming back to your store if you aren't providing them something different in the experience. If you train your customers to just look for discount prices, then guess what? They will find the stuff cheaper somewhere else. Probably at a big box store that can buy supplies cheaper than you can. So there is no future in that kind of selling model. What the big box stores can't do - and the family business can - is provide expertise, and engagement and responsiveness. The family business can determine to be the best in their particular field, sell stuff that is worth the price to buy and be there when things go wrong, to make them right again. That's what business can do - and that's what business will do... if it wants to stay in business in this new economy.

But that's not all bad. And technology lets us not only provide this expertise and superior service model in our local downtown area, but potentially, across the internet to those people who want what you specialise in. If you set your business up well, you can sell your stuff to people close by - and people not so close by, but who want what only you can do.

So what is the 'takeaway' from this? Simply this.

If you want your business to be vital into the future you need to start approaching it as a business. Understand the way the market works and you make sure you have:

• A clear Vision for what you want to achieve
• Communicate that Vision to your employees, friends, partner, and customers
• a strategy of your own to follow in implementing your vision
• actions and steps in place to deliver what you promise
• methods in place to monitor and track your progress
• a clear understanding of who your competitors are - and
• what strategy they are using.

It's not good enough now to just turn up each day and do what you do. Think. Plan. Take Action. Engage.

That's what will keep your business healthy in the new economy.

Oh and one final thing. If you don't love your customers ... get out of business now.

Related posts

Nurture your customers - how and why
Businesses are hiding online and nobody can find them
Business articles on social media and online marketing 
How this clothing business in an Australian country town started selling to the world

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Developing A Social Media Strategy

Update: Good strategy doesn't change just because other things in the environment change. A good social media strategy will be flexible, dynamic and fit new information into the responding appropriately as the context changes. For example, as smartphones and tablets become the favourite way to view content online, this needs to be incorporated into the strategy.


A question this week on Quora was a good one and one that deserves some attention from us all, in conducting our business activities. Here's my response.

"My company is a B2B company and we are trying to come up with a strategy around social media. I find it tough to figure out what to include and what to avoid. Are there any factors I should take in to consideration while devising a strategy?" 

I would suggest you start with a clear understanding of the social media environment and a well defined purpose (and expectation) that is realistic and achievable in the first instance.

For those who want to use social media, and those who vehemently don't want to - they need to understand enough to make an informed choice either way and to deal with the consequences of that choice. Whether one is 'using social media' or not they can be the subject of discussion on social media and managing one's reputation online is just one element of this new world.

Basics

Get these right the first time. Know what kind of Facebook page is the wrong kind to use for business. Use the right kind. Don't set up a Twitter page then fail to keep updated regularly.

Remember Your Website!

Make sure your website is optimized for search - and for the people who
will use it! - Most that I see are very poor - on both counts. (Never
mind they may have cost a lot of money from an expensive web designer).

Never, never let a stranger be in control of your business online. Get informed and get interested.


Not Just What, But How

It is important to understand the etiquette of online interaction and also the ways to leverage time and effort without putting those to whom we are connected offside. (Easy to do!)

Putting up a Facebook or Twitter Page ( and with the correct configuration and naming protocols) all need to be considered and that is just the beginning, the strategy behind this needs to support the objectives and while platforms are free to use there is always a cost in time and resources and budget need to be allocated for this purpose. Expect this and include it in your plan.


Social Media Policy

Some things to consider on creating a social media strategy:

Your social media policy - needs to be fair, realistic and training done with employees so that everyone is clear. Also needs to be in line with employment legistation so that you are not overstepping and writing in clauses that you have no right to demand. Suggest your policy begin with an intention to be open to the opportunities of social media, as well as the potential downside.

Hoary Old Myths

On the matter of Control - some employers think they can dictate all manner of things to employees and restrict their access to social media during work hours and this will keep them in control of their staff members. This is quite a silly assumption. Firstly, because you have no control now, secondly, because such an environment may just guarantee that good candidates won't want to work for you. Lastly - they can access anything they wish to via their smartphones and a combative attitude is not going to deliver a harmonious outcome that leverages the best available opportunities that new media can deliver.

Your Social Media Stategy:

• A social media policy
• A Clearly articulated purpose and vision
• Select appropriate platforms
• Allocate a budget
• Who will manage it?
• Time and resources that need to be allocated
• Which KPIs you are going to measure
• How you will measure your results
• How you will manage (an enhance) your reputation online
• How you will integrate your social media with your conventional marketing
• How thoroughly your social media activities should permeate throughout the operations of the business (Which department will handle this? Will all departments be involved?)
• Ways you can adapt social media to help you improve how customers interact with the business
• Ways that you can use social media to improve communications within the business and strengthen the team
• Managing and monitoring the plan
• Reporting - how often in what way
• Integrating platforms to allow transfer of content seamlessly, but in a regulated way (not spamming)
• Understanding that social media is not a broadcast medium! It can't be all just about YOU!
• Design for the type and quality of the content to be delivered by social media
• Who will create the content?
• What amount of content should be (can be) generated and by what frequency?
• Modes of content that can be made available - articles, blogs, ebooks, video, podcasts etc
• Integration with website

Engagement

People follow people so it is important to remember that there needs to be engagement and if multiple people contributing to the social media for the company, there is merit in these being tagged to the individual who is posting at any time. Be interesting. Be interested.


Not Just For Christmas

There is often a thought that a social media strategy is a one-off, trial kind of activity that we do. It is not set and forget and it not even a funky thing to do any more. It is become expected. If you are not visible online, for an increasing many, you just don't exist. So get accustomed to this being a new marketplace. Devise a plan that brings your existing customers along with you and if you are really smart - introduce them to those who can help you help them develop their own online presence. This is where the magic is, and this is where most fail to connect the dots.


See Also:
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness

Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.

How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online

Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website


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