My partner, Susie and I had to move – our landlord had decided to sell.   We could have waited until after Christmas to begin the search for our new home but decided to explore the options.  Our list of needs and wants meant we had a limited choice of places and so when one came available we made a decision and got on with it.

It is very different from anything either of us has lived in, quite modern, in a cul-de-sac and very suburban, so we wondered if we were doing the right thing. But we decided that it wasn’t the end of the world even if we didn’t like the place. We could always do something else if it didn’t work out.

We both decided to be rigorous with what we kept or rather, what we discarded.  We had both been carrying some “stuff” for a few years that no longer served us.  For me it was old papers, presentations I’d given, Internet marketing seminars around the world I attended and other stuff which was “leading edge” when I first came across them ten years ago. (I’ve always been into exploring new ideas).

For Susie it was clothes and her “foo-foo” stuff as she calls it.   She loves to fossick in recycle stores for clothes, furniture and nick-nacks.  I have to say, she is very good at it and has furnished most our house that way and receives loads of compliments on her style. So for her to part with some of these possessions was a hard decision.  My daughter, Billie, forced Susie into even more discard choices with her clothes  – “Have you worn that in the last six months?” “No.” Out it goes.

There are a few cool things about giving these clothes and ornaments back to the recycle shops.
•    We de-clutter and create more space in our lives
•    Other people get the chance to rummage and find bargains
•    The charity shops get some more revenue.

The sorting and packing was plenty of work –but we broke it down into manageable amounts each evening so we could see progress but also move forward at a good pace.

I then approached furniture removals companies that were on lower pages of Google and offered them a contra deal – I’d optimise their site if they did my move.  And that was an interesting exercise as most thought it was a scam or too good to be true. One guy though, Paul, who is spending significant amounts on Adwords each month immediately saw the benefit to him and went for it, especially when I showed him how the new Google map scrolls down over his adverts! So we got to move for free and he saves $$$.  Plus, when he arrived with his team, he had a hot SEO lead for me. 

Once we got to the new house, Susie had a brain wave about changing the master bedroom for the office.  This meant the office was on the ground floor and close to the rest of the living space so I can remain “connected” with the rest of the family instead of being stuck upstairs.. This one small change has made the house even better suited to us and our life.

Then more, swift, focused hard work with unpacking and placing belongings in their new places.  And already the house looks like we’ve been here for ages.

Some added bonuses are a super friendly dog the children play with (in fact he just walked past my door as I typed this), cats my daughter loves and my son Joe has rediscovered riding his bike.

The result?

Within 3 weeks from the initial idea, we were settled in a new place which is ideal for us at this stage of our life
We are carrying much less baggage and
My children have new buddies to play with

Lessons to apply in your business

• If you have an idea or desire to do something but are unsure of the outcome, start on it immediately.
• Precisely define what you want.
• Research quickly.
• Don’t hold onto preconceived ideas, they are probably wrong.
• Have a plan and make it manageable.
• Be creative like using your services in exchange for what you want.
• Be bold in your decision making.
• Act fast knowing you can change if it’s not what you want.
• Small changes can produce huge benefits.
• Be flexible and willing to change quickly.
• You never know what other benefits you will get by making decisions and taking action.

So what marketing plan have you been putting off in your business?
•    A promotion to your customers?
•    Optimising your website so people can find it easier in Google?
•    An on-line promotion for Christmas perhaps?

Whatever it is, decide to do it or get outside help to make it happen.  And with the holiday spending season fast approaching, you could receive a nice windfall.

Technorati Tags: local marketing, Search engine optimisation, Search engine optimization, Small business marketing

I was talking to a prospective client today, following-up a proposal I sent for a small website she needs (and wants).

I’ve also sent her an update on the new Google search results plus a piece on how to avoid the biggest mistake people make about their website (an over emphasis on the design of the site rather than the marketing of it).  So she’s well informed about the current important aspects to marketing on-line.

But when we spoke she said “Who knows my business better than me?” and she had decided to do more planning for a bigger site.  My head swooned at this.

Firstly, making the project bigger is a sure-fire way to bring the project to a screeching halt.

But the biggest problem is that she “knows” her business better than anyone else.  While that’s true to a large extent in terms of the operations, most business owners rarely know their business from a customer’s perspective.  And almost certainly is the worst person to plan and implement their marketing.

How I Learnt The Secret To Marketing Yourself Online.

Last December, I was struggling to create my new website.  I couldn’t get a grip on where to start and thought, “How can I consult to people if I can’t do my own site?”I was in inner turmoil about it.

Then I was being interviewed about SEO by a successful marketing consultant in San Francisco.  She mentioned that she always outsources her marketing because she’s too close to it. Phew! It wasn’t just me.

A week later I was chatting with a marketing guy in England and he said the same thing – he outsources his marketing. Hmm – interesting.  I see a pattern developing

Then soon after I was talking with New Zealand’s top marketing consultant and he said that he always has someone else check his marketing.  Hallelujah!  The answer to marketing myself is not to try it.

And that’s it.  You are very unlikely to be successful with your marketing, whether it’s an ad, a sales letter, a web page or your search engine optimisation because you know what you want to say but you rarely know what a customer wants to hear.

An Example – The Same Market – Two Different Languages – No Business

A client in a small volume, high ticket price industry was #2 in Google and his competitor was #1 but neither got any traffic to their sites. I did some keyword research and found that between them they had many hundreds of web pages but hardly any searches for their keywords.

At the other end of the spectrum, there were a good number of searches but hardly any pages.

The business owners were using the wrong language because they know the topic inside out but they didn’t know how a customer expresses the problems.

So, for an independent view on your online marketing and SEO, email here for a complementary 30 minute consultation with an Auckland Internet marketing service.

Technorati Tags: Auckland, Internet marketing, local marketing, Small business marketing

If you develop a deeper relationship with them, you can achieve three things:

1.       generate repeat business for the initial products,

2.       you could sell other products or

3.       you could sell to them more often

But for some reason, small business owners prefer to go and get new customers. I don’t know why because it’s much harder work to convert a cold prospect.  You have to spend money to get them in. and you are unproven so your competition is much higher.

Anyway, given that that is the preference and entrepreneurs want more sales leads, here are three reasons to help you along that path.

1 Not marketing enough. Period.

It’s amazing how many businesses don’t do any marketing of any substance.  The old adage, “Build it and they’ll come” or “People know me so why should I bother?” – they may have worked in a few cases before but these days, there are is so much competition that you simply cannot afford not to do marketing.

BTW – competition isn’t just another supplier of your service or products. It’s the total competition for your dollars.  So for a holiday company, your competition isn’t just another travel agent but the TV store, the clothes shop and the car salesman.  So your messages have to be compelling against ALL of those.

2 Not marketing in the right places.

Assuming you are one of the marketing-enlightened business owners (if you are still reading, then you must agree with what I’ve written so far), then the next issue is where do you put your compelling messages?

The Yellow Page was a good and reliable but expensive option for many years but now?  Hmmm – the yellow books are used to hold up monitors or stop desks wobbling.

Local papers?  They are getting thinner as people stop advertising because the response rates have dropped off.

No, you need to go where the fish are feeding.  Where people are actually looking for products right there and then.

With newspapers and the like, most people who may see your advert are simply not in the market for your product at that time so your money is wasted.  Unless you spend money each and every week hoping someone will be looking to buy at some stage.

A much better option is to be visible when people are actually searching for information about your product. You become visible when they are in the buying mood. Do you think they are more likely to contact you at that point than at any random moment in time?

3 Not marketing with enough tools.

For those business that do market themselves, most depend on or two tools – Yellow Pages and a flyer perhaps.

But would you build your house on just two pillars?  Probably not – it wouldn’t be very stable.  And so it is with your marketing – it needs to be multiple-legged.

What’s the answer to more sales leads?

So you are looking for a way to do marketing, that’s going to be seen when people are in the buying mode and that has multiple ways of being used.  It sounds a tall order but the solution is…..Internet marketing in its many guises.

• You can use search engine optimisation (SEO) so that you are found in Google when people begin their search process.
• You can use articles and reviews so people can assess your product or service.
• You can claim your spot in Google Places or Maps as it used to be.
• You can use online video marketing to demonstrate your products.
• You can have a mobile phone website.
• You can have a podcast where you talk about your products so people can listen on their mp3.

And many more tools.

Your first step is to find a small business Internet marketing service that understands your situation – not just the technology but business too.  The basics of business don’t change – it’s the how that has changed.

Technorati Tags: Internet marketing, mobile marketing, online video, SEO, seo consultant, Small business marketing

It comes down to a misunderstanding of the needs of marketing on the Internet.

People are fed the idea that by simply putting up a website, all of their marketing problems are over.  They can sit back and enjoy a steady stream of new prospects and customers but actually, successful marketing online demands an even greater effort and time than traditional marketing.

The problems start with the web design sales people who rarely explain, if hey themselves even know, what is truly involved in getting a website higher on Google.

Their function is to sell a website whereas it should be to help the client market their business better.

That might involve a website for sure but for most small businesses a big-project (read big expense) website is totally unnecessary.

The majority of the on-line marketing budget should go to ……errm marketing online.

An online marketing strategy will include market and keyword research as the first stage.

This will identify what your prospects are actually looking for.

How many times a month hey are looking for it.

Then the strength and extent of your competition.

Unless you know those three key aspects, your website is doomed to fail.

The second problem is that business owners think that once the sit is live, then the work is done.

Unfortunately, Google likes to see regular new additions to your site.  They take the view that market s are always changing so those local business owners who take the time and invest in educating their prospects, deserve to be rewarded with better rankings and getting higher in Google.

The third critical aspect is building links from other sites back to your website.  This is vital and it’s important to get the right type of link too.  For more information on links, you might find this useful – an item all about link building.

http://www.squidoo.com/seo-consultant-in-auckland-pt-4-back-links-the-most-important-part

What has all of this got to do with a car?

When you buy a car, you don’t simply drive it off the car-yard and expect that it’s going to stay that shiny, fresh and full of gas for the rest of its life.

• You clean it regularly which is like adding new content to keep you website fresh.
• You give it fuel which is adding back-links to your site because a good linking strategy provides a fuel injection of visitors.
• You service your car which is like looking at the analytics or visitor data so you can improve the performance of your site.

The fuel is the most expensive part of running your car and it’s also the one thing that you cannot provide yourself.  You have to rely on the petrol companies to source the oil, process it and then send it to your local gas station.  And so it is with link building.

You could do it yourself but it’s difficult, hard, time-consuming and requires specialist knowledge to do well.  You are best advised to engage an SEO consultant for this essential aspect of your website’s well being. It’s money well spent.

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, seo consultant

For some, the ‘Net is a direct business threat with other suppliers coming into your market but for most, especially local service providers and retailers, the Net is, or should have been, a significant marketing channel for them. But it probably wasn’t. And that was their downfall.

Sure, many will say the economy’s tough, people aren’t buying, the banks wouldn’t give them credit etc. But if your marketing is right, then those issue all go away. You have prospects, not just any, but the right prospects coming to you, ready and willing to buy your stuff.

Why?

Because they have been able to find them where 75% of people being their search for suppliers …in Google.

More and more, people are flocking to the Internet to find suppliers, information about products and services, prices, competitors. Today’s consumer is well prepared.

But that is in your favour because when they do go to see a provider, they are just about sold. They’ve done their research and compared deals so they just need the actual Thing or Service.

But that assumes they can find the information about YOUR Thing or Service. If they can’t, you’re not even in the picture.

So making it easy for prospects to find out about your products and also about you as a potential supplier, is vital.

So SEO or search engine optimisation is the first strategy you have to decide to undertake. Or more precisely, to have undertaken because SEO is not easy. Despite what many amateurs would have you believe.

SEO is a set of skills that requires in the first place, lots of complex analysis which rules out your web designer.

It needs an understanding of how Google works which changes more than once a day so that rules out part-time SEOs like business owners.

It needs creative writing so that rules out most people.

It requires building incoming links regularly so you need to know where to get links which rules out 99.9% of the population.

It requires discipline to build links consistently which rules out just as many.

So if your business is to survive, it has to be in the top ten in Google at the very least.

Over 60% of significant local purchases for products and services, start with a Google search.

As you read this, you may feel concerned about the level of sales in your business?

You may be curious to know how people find local services these days?

Perhaps you are thinking what you do when you want to find new suppliers?

As you read more, you may be wondering if your marketing is keeping up with the times?

You begin to feel like you ought to find out more about how to use the Internet to meet your customers’ needs.

When people look in Google for a local service provider like yours, it’s because they have a real need and they want it sorted.  And the exciting thing is, they are willing to spend money to do it.

The big question is….

Where will people spend the money?

The answer is with a company on Page 1 of Google, and in all probability, the one nearest the top.  (No.1 in Google gets 41.2% of clicks).

Is that you or is it a competitor who will be getting their money?

There is no doubt in the mind of smart business owners and managers, that being at or near the top of Google is the only place to be for customers to find them.

If you’re not on Page 1 of Google, you are losing business.

I was talking to a client about how we had got their site onto Page 1 of  Google. He was delighted because before we worked together, he was way down on Page 5 and no-one searches that far in Google. In fact, 94% of people only use Page 1.

He was saying how much better he felt about his business and how many new leads he was getting now that his site was

at the top of Google.  He said, “I think back to just a few months ago before you did the site optimization work and how poorly it was working.  I was way down on Page 5.  Not only am I number 1 but I have 39 different Page 1 results.  Now I see what a difference it makes having Search Engine Optimization done to a site.“

Now, maybe you are wondering how you can have the same feeling of comfort and confidence about the future of our business.  Do you want to see your website at the top of Google?

It’s absolutely possible.

That client isn’t the only one.   There are many, in different industries and services like yours including:

retail                   B2B                         lawyers                    car servicing
engineering        training                     public speakers         air conditioning
therapists            jewelery                   garden services        furniture
coaching            real estate                auto-panel beaters    engineering
plastics manufacturing                        time management

To see how you can achieve the same success for your business, enter your name and email here for a newsletter with regular tips and ideas about staying ahead of your competitors by using the Internet better.

Claim your no-cost, no obligation 27-point website assessment by clicking the link below. Search Engine Assessment Test

Andrew Haddleton
GIG Marketing
andrew@gigmarketing.biz

“At times, responding to a customer through a review is the only way to reach them if you don’t have their contact information. Perhaps just as importantly, it gives you the opportunity to let potential customers who are reading your reviews know your side of the story. While bad reviews are often earned, there are those that are inaccurate.

There’s another opportunity here that I want to call your attention too.

While most business owners will take the opportunity to respond to negative reviews, very few will take the time to respond to the positive reviews.”

I agree.

Not enough people use the reviews feature
at Google Places. It has a strong influence
on your rankings plus it’s just good manners.

Knowing how to write good copy.
Managing staff.
Building rapport with prospects.
Sales skills.
Understanding accounts.
Marketing.
Being open to Internet marketing.

And those answers will probably be influenced by their own area of expertise because they believe that their skill is the key to your business success.  That’s a fair position but you need to think about who is giving you the answer.

The problem is that not humanly possibly to be good at all of those so something has to be sacrificed which ultimately is better business results.

How about this as the key skill?

Decision making.

Al of the skills I gave above you can have done by other people – your staff, contractors or expert agencies.  In fact, you should probably have them all done by external suppliers so you can concentrate on your strategy and talking with customers.

But how do you have them undertaken by others?

By making the decision to do so.

Just decide.

I want more sales.  I want better staff relations.  I want more marketing.

And then find someone to do it for you.

I had an example this week.

Someone rang a client of mine asking how they had got such a good position in Google.  He referred her to me.  We chatted about her situation – she already had a good basic SEO in place but hadn’t got any results yet.  Sometimes you just need patience because it takes time for Google to find sites.

So we were able to talk about the next level for her, not just waiting for people to come to her site but actively going out and getting among people looking for her type of material. I call it marketing off-site.  More on that next week.

It’s the difference between having a shop, hoping people will walk in or sending out flyers, running ads and issuing press releases. You have to actively market your business online, not just wait for people to come to your site.

I gave her a proposal on Monday, we spoke early Wednesday. By midday, she decided to go ahead.

And the result?

Instead of hoping people would come along to her site and maybe see some articles she has written, she now a small part of her has her knowledge in 50 different locations where people are actively looking for material and articles that they can use in their own publications.  You can imagine how much more likely it is that people will find her work now.

She has plenty more material so over time, she will build a huge number of contact opportunities out on the Web.

Plus she also now has 50 links into her site. (Links account for 80% of the ranking of a website).

That’s the power of decision-making.

Making decisions is hard
Decision-making is like any other activity.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Try this exercise.

Stand still, move quickly to one-side and then immediately try changing direction.

Now do the same thing but this time start off by bouncing on your toes or swaying from side to side.

See how much easier it is to change direction when you are moving?  It’s the same with decisions.  If you are in the mind-set of deciding, it’s easier to change to a different tactic.

What if I make the wrong decision?
If you do happen to make a decision that doesn’t give you the results you wanted, when you are in decision-mode, you can easily make another one to do something else.

Teddy Roosevelt, former US President, said,
“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

So, what decisions have you been putting off?  Make a decision today to do something that will take your business forward.

Technorati Tags: action-taking, Internet marketing, Marketing

This week I’ve been working on a client’s website, setting up a blog for them and integrating their social media accounts.

It can be a complex process bringing it all together which is why I was asked to look after the job.

Anyway, one of the most difficult parts is ……..passwords and the number of different accounts you need to run.

At the moment you’ve probably got your on-line banking PW, a couple of email accounts, your Facebook access codes, your work email and probably a few more.

And when you start to use social media which, social book-marking, blogs and a whole array of other modern essential communications tools, it soon mounts up and becomes impossible to remember.

Unless of course you use the same PW for each account or the obvious ones – your name, child’s name, birthday.  Those are very unsafe. They are simple to guess, hack and crack. (Wasn’t that an advertising agency?)

So what can you do?

Here are three simple ideas to save you time looking for the PWs and increase your PC security.

1 The boring sensible approach.
Mix up lower case, capitals and numbers.
Even adding a single capital in an 8 character PW increases the combinations exponentially.

2 The fun and personal growth approach.
What!

How can personal growth increase your PC security?

By using positive affirmations for your security codes.  For example.

IamHealthy, IamHappy, IMustWorkWithAndrew.

You get the idea.

This has three benefits.
•    A less common phrase that’s personal to you.
•    Mixed case letters which increases the combinations.
•    You frequently reinforce your desires or goals.

Cool idea huh,

3 The easy option wherever you are.
You may have your PWs stored on your computer but you may not always be at your own desk.

The answer here is to use a product like www.LastPass.com.  This is a free service that stores your passwords online so you only have to remember one password and can access your PWs from whatever terminal you are working at.

Your responsibility and a disclaimer
These ideas do not guarantee your PC security.
No system is completely safe and you are responsible for the
security you use on your system.  But these ideas are
better than “yourname123” that far too many people use.

Let me know your thoughts or post a comment below.

Technorati Tags: local marketing, Small business marketing

She said it was uncanny how I’d pre-empted what she was just about to write in her newsletter.  Spooky huh.

Besides the fact that my crystal ball was especially active last week, it’s more that the topic (prospects not making decisions) is so endemic that it affects most of us as far as our business is concerned.

It frustrates the heck out of us because they can’t / won’t / don’t decide to use our service which we KNOW will help them.  It’s plain as day you could take them forward.  Hey, even if they said “No”, at least you would be further ahead.  You could stop wasting time on them.

Yet, many of us are just as guilty when it comes to investing in people who could help us.

Think about it. How many issues do you have in your business where potential service providers have been calling on you but you’ve still not engaged them.

Hmm – my crystal ball is vibrating again.  I think I just struck a chord with a few folks.

If you are resisting taking on suppliers, how can you expect people to take you on?  Same coin, different sides.

So my pressure-point question this week is.

Choose one company on both sides of your business – one prospect and one supplier – that you know you should be doing business with?

Make it your objective this week to commit to converting one prospect and then investing that revenue into your business with a supplier who will be able to take you forward.

Let me know how you get on.

And for the first person to complete both sides, I’ll give you a gratis 27-point SEAT – Search Engine Assessment Test.That’s normally 147 smackeroos.

So, away you go.  Get on the phone.
Now.
What are you waiting for?

And think what that will do for the economy.

Technorati Tags: Action, Internet marketing, local marketing, Small business marketing