Sadly, today’s consumers have come to expect less than stellar service from most businesses they frequent. Lack of attention, poor product delivery, and an overall attitude of disinterest permeates more than a few businesses so it’s not hard to understand why so many people have such low expectations of customer service.
However, just because that’s the way it is in most businesses doesn’t mean that’s how it has to be in yours!
There’s a movement out there to bring back the ’service with a smile’ mantra. Check out this video and tell me how you think applying it’s principles to your local small business could help you grow in this economy:
I work a lot with local, service based businesses and the more and more people I talk to, the more and more I’m realizing just how mysterious this whole ‘Internet’ thing is. I’d venture a guess that a large majority of these local, service based business owners definitely know what they Internet is, the certainly know it’s an important thing, but when push comes to shove, they really have no clue how to make it work for their business.
What Keywords Would Someone Use To Find Your Business?
In other words, how can they generate qualified leads online, convert them to customers, and then hopefully build a lasting and profitable relationship, all online through their Internet presence.
Whenever someone asks me what the starting point should be in terms of growing your local business through the Internet, my first answer is always, “you’ve got to do the keyword research” to which they usually reply, “what’s keyword research?”
In a nutshell, keyword research is identifying the words or phrases someone would use to search for your business on the Internet. So when they go to Google and type in the words they think will bring them the answer to their query, what are the words that will bring them to you?
Just like you need to pick a niche for your services, you should also pick just a handful of keywords and focus on them as you begin your web marketing efforts.
For example, let’s say you run a lawn care or landscaping business. The very first thing you should do is figure out what words someone would type into a search engine if they were looking for your business.
Would it be ‘lawn care’, ‘lawn care service’, or maybe ‘lawn mowing’? And what if they were looking for someone to do lawn fertilization, they’d might search for ‘lawn care fertilization’ or something of the sorts.
The key is to pick 2-3 primary keywords that you’ll focus the majority of your efforts on. This means you’ll want to sprinkle your keywords throughout the content you create for your site, you’ll need to include them in your title tags and meta tags, and you’ll want to create content (articles, videos, blog posts, etc.) that talks about those keywords.
Remember, doing your keyword research up front is like creating the roadmap for where you want to go. If you don’t know where you want to go, you want know what direction to head, and you’ll certainly never know when you get there.
So before you do anything online, spend some time brainstorming the right keywords because it will make everything you do a whole lot more focused and a whole lot more effective.
I’ve recently completed a draft of a one page flyer for a marketing client of mine. As is usually the case whenever I create a marketing piece, the amount of text far outweighed amount of pictures by a fairly wide margin.
Very shortly after sending the draft to my client to review, I got the following response, something I’ve actually come to expect from new clients:
“Dude! No one will ever read that. It looks like spam at first glance. Needs to be 90% pictures and 10% text and the text needs to be one or two sentences per caption.”
So, why is that I’ve come to expect this response and why do I insist on including so much copy in my marketing materials?
There’s actually a couple of reasons.
First, most people think marketing needs to be all pictures, logos, or slogans that build a ‘brand’. In fact, 99% of all marketing we see is simply trying to build a company’s brand.
They want us to think of their product or service whenever we have a need that they happen to fulfill so they buy up as much ad space as they can afford to and plaster their company logo or slogan all over, hoping to burn them into your brains.
Sadly, the results are very rarely what any self-respecting marketer is hoping to achieve.
Another reason I’ve come to expect this reaction is because long copy sales materials are very much out of the norm. Again, because most people are used to seeing the one photo with a catchy slogan, or the company name and then a menu of products or services being offered, anytime they see lots of words, it shocks their brain because it’s so unusual.
Well, truth be told, if you’ve written the copy and targeted your market correctly, people will actually read what you’ve written.
Finally, I insist on including lots of copy in my marketing materials because people are starving for quality information to help them make a decision. Especially if it’s a high dollar decision they’re making!
You see, human nature states that we want to make the BEST buying decision possible. Unfortunately, there’s a severe shortage of quality information available to help us make our decisions so in most cases we end up deciding based on price because that’s really the only differentiating factor we have.
Flat out, that’s a HORRIBLE place to be.
When you give your target market the information they need to make a good buying decision, you not only position yourself as ‘The Expert’, but you always convey some goodwill, which in turn motivates your prospect to want to do business with you.
So, as you’re creating your marketing materials, don’t be afraid of a lot of text! Look at your printed marketing materials as tiny little salesmen that you’re sending out to deliver your complete sales message and story.
Do you honestly think you could do that effectively if you include 90% pictures and only 10% text?
Well, not anymore. Compete.com just released some recent analytics data that shows Facebook has overtaken Yahoo! as the second most popular destination on the web behind Google.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re serious about growing your business using the Internet then you MUST get serious about Facebook.
If you haven’t already, start a personal profile. Play around with it for a while. Search for some of your old high school or college friends.
Then once you’re comfortable, move onto setting up a Fan Page for your business, which is very similar to your personal profile. Here you’ll have the opportunity to develop relationships that could result in new business or profitable partnerships.
So, if you haven’t already picked up on the idea that Facebook should be a part of your multi-channel marketing efforts (notice I said ‘a part’, not ‘the whole enchilada’), hopefully this news will help open your eyes!
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I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched a complete episode of the popular TV show ‘24′. You know, the one where super-agent Jack Bauer races around killing terrorists, stopping diabolical schemes, and ultimately, keeping the world a safer place for our kids.
I hear from all my friends that watch it that it’s a great show, and as evidenced by the fact that it’s back for who knows which season and that millions of people tune in each week, they must be doing something right.
Well, have you ever thought about what that show would’ve looked like 15 or so years ago?
We talk all the time about the dramatic impact technology has had on our lives, and this ‘un-aired’ pilot (wink wink) of the show ‘24′ gives us a first-hand look at how differently things would be without all the technological advances we enjoy today.
