4 Top Reasons Why SEO May Be A Waste of Money

So a lot of small business owners, in fact 99% of them have a web page.  Of these owners many of them pay a clearing house or some agency for SEO (search engine optimization) to ensure that their page ends up on page 1 of a Google search.  Often though when I ask owners about this they have no idea of what is being done for this.

My opinion is that this can be a frivolous expense because most of these owners are not utilizing the the power of social media.  In fact, most of these owners either:

• don’t have a social media page
• only have 1 type of page
• don’t know anything about their page
• only posted < 10 things to it.

The image above depicts how Google ranks you in a search.  You obviously want to be the yellow or red face.  Getting their requires many links though.  The problem with a lot of SEO is it is based on random or even blind keyword entries and it is expensive.  With social media you open up the infinite possibilities of back links (connecting your content to someone else’s page for visibility). 

ALL OF THIS IS FREE!!!

Regularly posting to social media establishes you as an expert and can get you an audience you never thought you had.

91% of data usage on smart phones is used on social media

That’s huge! Take a business like a pet store.  Whenever someone comes in to play with a dog or to purchase one you should snap a picture (have releases ready if they are ify about it).  Upload the picture to Facebook or Pinterest.  If they are on FaceBook they will be tagged in the photo and notified.  This gives you a link to their page, a possible friend request, and maybe a Like (more likes mean more rotation in someone’s news feed which also results in a higher search rank).  That is a potential gold mine of free marketing!

Don’t forget about Google +.  Since Google has the largest market share of searches they also give preference to their profile pages.  If you don’t have one then make one.  It will be a great way for people to find more about you after they discover you on Google Places.

In short,

WAKE UP!!!!!

I used to only deal with people face to face and didn’t use social media for myself, but I have had success with helping others implement it.  It’s a necessity in business and much less of a financial strain than a lot of SEO promises.

 

I hope these tips help your business grow!

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3 Major Revenue Generators Businesses Overlook

Business is slow. Business is slow. Business is slow………………………..

I constantly hear this from business owners.

Next I ask, “what are you doing about it?” Typical response is, “I’m online”, but that is very vague. These businesses I talk to say having a website is being online….

WRONG!

Having a website can actually be a waste of money at times. You can have the most glorious website ever and be paying at upwards of $2000 a month for it, but have no traffic. You need to be proactive about marketing . I myself used to solely use my in person interactions with people for my consulting, but I have since been on line as I would always help them grow their presence. I figured I might as well put my knowledge to work for me (it’s hot in Las Vegas and being in 110 degree heat kind of sucks……)

The internet is very organic now. Social media populates the internet a lot in various platforms. There are typically 3 main things I recommend to businesses that are not “hip” as to what to do

1. Facebook religiously. If you have a store or office of some sort, put a lot of pictures of it online. Promotions, items you carry, silly pictures, whatever. These are the things that generate the most Likes online. If you didn’t know, the Likes serve almost as an imbedded ad in someone’s page and moves you up on the list of searches compared to a similar business with no Likes. Every one that Likes you will see your page show up in their news feed. FREE SUBLIMINAL MARKETING!!! Don’t forget to be a friend to people though. Respond to their comments and give helpful tips to people. Don’t just be a salesman all the time.

2. Twitter a little more than Facebooking (funny verb). Twitter provides a great short commercial. The shelf life of a tweet can be very short, but if you tailor it properly and set up some sort of automatic posting of it (Buffer, HootSuite, etc) then you’re likely to generate some sales. Remember, 91% of the internet used on smartphones is used socializing. Grab some of that market, FOR FREE!!

3. The new guy Google+ is very important. If you hadn’t noticed, you can’t leave anonymous reviews on Google anymore. You have to have a Google account. On the flip side, businesses need to have a Google account to give people a place to effectively see who they are. You’d be surprised how many people have an unclaimed business on Google. CLAIM IT!! It’s a representation of you. If someone wants to leave you a positive review, they might not do it if your page has no photos or info about you. Have some pride and own your page. Again, IT’S FREE MARKETING! Put up pictures here as well and products you carry.

Since the web is organic, don’t forget to link all of these platforms together. All of these things grant you exposure. The more exposure you have, the more customers you have. It’s been that way since men sold furs in village squares! There are still other places to go (YouTube, Pinterest, FourSquare, etc), but I deem these ones the most important for any consumer based business.

Don’t kill yourself doing all of this manually. Get some kind of software to help you automate this for God’s sake.

PS – I hope these tips help you to not be slow!

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4 Insights To Improve Your Business Now

So I was talking to a business owner about their current situation. They ran a furniture store. Pretty good inventory and a decent location because it was near some new housing and not too far from a military base. They were drowning. As I spoke to them more they said “we don’t understand the new way of business.” That resounded with me because a lot of small business owners are thinking this, but won’t say anything. They were used to the old school ways of people having extra cash and buying the most expensive things or referrals being their life blood

THE GLORY DAYS ARE OVER!

(at least for now)

As I spoke to them they also though the newspaper was still a viable form of marketing………..

Therefore, I wrote this blog to let you know the simple, inexpensive tips I bestowed upon them to get them going now. These are sales and marketing tips that can be applied to any business format.

1. Business is getting a customer and keeping them for life. This needs to be a way of life. Unfortunately businesses lose an average 10% of their customers each year for various reasons. A way to curtail this is to realize that you began a relationship when they spent their money on you. Target will never know me. Though they try withemail marketing. Why don’t you? Send thank you emails. Ask them a bit about their lives. Yourself is your favorite topic. Your clients feel the same way about themselves. Indulge them. Who knows, you may develop some genuine relationships like people did in the good old days.

2. Don’t throw a lot of money at advertising if you can’t or unless you’ve exhausted other means. The place I dealt with instantly thought about the newspaper. That costs money. Do you have a Google page? No. Do you have a Twitter? No. Do you have any web presence? No. So how will the Sunday paper help you?! Unless your audience is only seniors, forget about the paper. About 90% of people say that online reviews impact their purchases somehow. If you’re not involved online then you’re missing 90% of the people shopping! That’s huge, isn’t it? Try the free means of advertising before you blow money you’re losing. IT’S FREE FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!

3. Do not every begin the relationship with your customers based on budget. I know that is hard to hear for some people, but it is a proven no no that great sales people live by. A lot of small businesses can’t hire a sales force or the one they have isn’t stellar. In this furniture store they developed a habit of asking “what is your budget?” This cripples you. You should approach with as many open questions as possible. What are you looking for in particular? Where will you be using it? Tell me about that area. How long did you have your last __? Budget becomes a last piece because if they give you all of the emotional reasons of why they are even looking for something then the logic will come into place. It reminds me of a time when me and my wife were in a hotel and needed to just get some lotion. We stopped at one of the seemingly unattended cosmetic booths and used some lotion. A young lady approaches and starts to ask if we need any facial products. We say no, but then she asks what are you using now? This opens up a whole conversation of what we tried, what did or did not work, what success she had with her product versus others. Needless to say, our innocent stop for lotion led to a cosmetic purchase because she appealed to our emotions. We rationalized the price afterwards. Most of your clients behave in the same manner so live by emotions not logic.

4. Look at things from your client’s eyes. All of us forget that there are 2 sides to business some times. We get so hung up on what we want and how great our business is that we forget that our customers often have limited resources. This doesn’t mean treat them like scum, but instead show empathy and figure out how you can genuinely help them. If you sell any physical product, really figure out what your product will mean to them and convey that back. If you sell a service, try to really understand how your service will improve THEIR LIFE. We often times know we have a great product that we know everybody needs, but people need it for different reasons. A lot of purchases happen because people feel comfortable with the salesperson. You, as a small business owner need to develop that skill until you can hire somebody that comes with that.

In short, your customers are people too and the internet is one of businesses greatest tools. Few things we do are done with total logic. A large majority of our decisions are emotional. Print and television advertising is dying. Print is losing about 39% of advertising, television is losing about 7% per year, and internet advertising is growing at least 10% each year. Catch the wave!

PS – I hope these tips help your business grow.

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