webmarketingofnorthflorida.com

In the recent columns here, I have mentioned the tools that I use to drive massive amounts of qualified traffic to a clients door. While the exact system that I use is proprietary, I can at least tell you what some of the tools are and some of the detail on how to set them up for maximum results.

Today, I’d like to talk about the website itself. While anyone would consider a website to be an essential part of our Internet marketing system, you can actually run a successful Internet campaign without a website at all! Of course, for this column, we will be talking about the website creation.

Let me say outright, that practically anyone can build a website now. There are so many resources available on the Internet that will help you build your own site, even if you know nothing about HTML coding. The world is changing, and at least on the Internet, it’s becoming more user-friendly.

The cost of building these do-it-yourself sites is free in many cases. But I want to stress that there is often a price to be paid in the resulting effectiveness of these sites. While the software might help you insert the pictures and text, the underlying search engine optimization (SEO) suffers.

SEO is what we web marketing types design into the website to make sure the search engines such as Google and Yahoo can find, categorize, index, and display your site correctly. If this has been left to chance, then the likelihood of your site showing up in the search results correctly are vastly diminished.

When building the site, we like to see two things: that certain keywords and search phrases are embedded into the site correctly, and that the navigation of the site to the user is smooth.

I recommend that you use the free Google keyword tool to discover the proper search terms and keywords for your particular niche. There are other tools as well, such as Market Samurai, which is quite good, but costs a bit to buy. Embed these search terms and keywords into your site in the Meta Tags area within the HTML portion of the site. Yes, it is true that Meta information is becoming less important to the newer search engine algorithms, but we do it anyway for the legacy systems out there.

Also, use the search terms and keywords within the text in your site as needed. Try to avoid using the same term more than three time per page, as the search engines are weary of sites loaded with repeat keywords. Working in this area is a little like a balancing act. The algorithms change every year, so staying on top of your site is important for good search results.

Within each site, we also like to tie in the pages to each other as links for the search engines to see. Actually there is an exact science behind SEO, so much so, that there is an entire industry dedicated to just that. The bigger the company, the more important that the website and SEO becomes. Maybe they know something we don’t about sales from the Internet?

Let’s go on to site navigation now. There is little worse than having a confusing, crowded site. This will send a visitor away in a hurry. We like to see sites that are bright and cheerful, with lots of open space. This really holds true in print ads also.

Marketing to a stranger is really an emotional experience, not so much a logical one. If the visitor to your site is met with a screen crammed with lots of text and graphics, it may be too much for them, and away they go with a click. We suggest a relaxed landing page with some graphics and text, but lots of open space.

Get right to the message you have on the first page. You might not get another chance, as they might move on. Internet browsers take about 2 seconds to determine if the site they are on is worth staying on.

Do you have a visually pleasing page, or is there a jumbled mess here? Does the first page speak directly to their need? People only search for you because they need answers to problems they have, not because you are their hero. Do you show them that you are not threatening? Do you come across as a friendly person / business?

Most important of our tools is the ‘offer’ for more information. Is there an irresistible offer for them to request? I can’t stress this enough. We always build an autoresponder into every site, and tie it into a follow-up system. This is an all-important tool to use for endearing your clients to your services.

In website creation there are many other things to know that I don’t have the room to go into here. Let me hit the highlights quickly.

• Avoid ‘flash’ landing pages; the search engines can’t read them.
• Avoid using sound clips that start upon the visitor arriving; it sends too many visitors away.
• Do include a photo of a friendly person looking directly at the visitor; it creates sticking power.
• Include photos of your staff and a short bio of each; this creates familiarity and comfort.
• Action-photos and videos-on-demand are very helpful, too.
• Testimonials are really valuable.
• Remember, ultimately, you are trying to give the visitor a reason to trust you in 2 seconds.

 Next issue, I’ll go into one of our other tools for massive traffic creation to your business. If you have questions about your website or marketing your business online, perhaps I can address them in this column. Please email your questions to me at the address below.

We Sell Clients, Buyers and Customers

(Not Ads, Coupons, or Leads)

Here is how we do it. We use sophisticated tools on the Internet to create a following for your goods and services. It’s a long and drawn-out technical recipe. Most people sort-of lose interest as we explain it. So, I have included a small illustration to help.

The chart shows that we drive hungry buyers from these 8 tools to your website, and THEN to your door!

More important than the chart, is what this system does for your business, IF implemented correctly. And I do mean, correctly!

There will be no results if you start this system and then stop after a month. It’s not a one-shot deal. Do NOT think that you can get hopping with a little social media, and see riches fall into your lap.

We spend hundreds of hours working on these tools, and creating an online presence for your company. We do this everyday. The results are that you will have customers that you could never have found before.

People are searching for answers. If your service solves a problem for them, why not let them know? They need your service, and they are willing to pay someone to solve their problem, why not YOU? Using the Internet to market your business is not necessarily ‘intruding’ into someone’s privacy. Our tools are located where people search for solutions.

People are turning more to the Internet now, than to the traditional methods like the yellow pages and newspapers. In another few years, things will have changed even more. Perhaps you should consider looking into Internet Marketing right now, before all your competition does.

I want to stress that we sell Customers. That is what we are hired to do. We are not hired to just post stuff on the Internet.  A 10 year old can do that. We are business builders, and that is all.

Please call us today for a private consultation.

Chuck Hall 904-607-3121

Web Marketing of North Florida.com

Internet Marketing for Small Business

Whereas this is a new column, I suppose I should explain the premise of this today, to bring all the readers up to speed. What I want to show you in these monthly columns is the real-world how-to for getting paying traffic to your business. It’s that simple. Use the Internet to drive hungry, money-bearing customers to your business.

Sounds great, huh? Well, it really is! The age of marketing is changing right before our very eyes. Many small business owners think that the Internet is some sort of fad, or perhaps a novel idea that isn’t for them. That’s just not the case. The Internet has and is changing everything about marketing your business. Perhaps you’ve noticed that most people today reach for the Internet before they reach for the yellow pages? Also, you’ve noticed that the yellow pages have their own Internet presence? They, too, have come to understand the power of the Internet.

I want to show you how to bring your business into the Internet Age, and show you how to start driving that targeted, qualified traffic to your front door! So, if you think that you’d be interested, all I ask is that you follow this column, and begin implementing the instructions. In respect for the general readership, however, I’ll try not to make this too dull and boring, as oftentimes technical instructions can become!

Let’s look at some of the benefits of Internet Marketing.

First, there is the Reach of the Internet. For most small business owners, there hasn’t been much interest in marketing to 7 billion people around the world. Well, there hasn’t been much interest before now, as they were impossible to reach, and way too expensive to go after. Know this: all that has changed. Small business now has access to those world markets. If you have the product, they have the need. Reaching them has become affordable now.

Ease of Marketing: With the old ways of marketing your products, there was the need to create a giant marketing and distribution program, determine the logistics of getting enough customers into the store to buy, and how to staff the store appropriately. Now, business owners can schedule the work, control the staffing needs, and lower these costs.

Inventory Control: Most small businesses must keep that inventory on-hand, ready to give to the customer upon demand. With Internet sales, this is simply not the case any longer. There are some Internet businesses that do not maintain any inventory at all! Think of all the freedom and affordability this gives your small business. You could actually run a small business with no inventory, no storage, no staff, etc. Admittedly, this is rare, but it can be done.

Larger Markets: While this seems related to the first item, we should speak to this in more detail. The market that your small business reaches now might be thousands of readers of your advertising efforts. So, you staff your store accordingly. You anticipate having 50 customers per day, so you hire 3 clerks. Their time spent with each prospect on average is about 35 minutes. With breaks, and other needs, you are well staffed, until someone gets sick, or goes on vacation.

With the Internet, you can more easily schedule the work. You can even miss some time, as the order will remain in the queue, waiting to be filled. After all, it has already been paid for!

But the size of the market available to you is simply awesome. While you service thousands now, you could do far more soon. With a little effort, your Internet reach could be hundreds of thousands quickly. The 3 largest search engines; Google, Bing, and Yahoo, report about 15 billion searches per month! Don’t you think that you could capitalize on some of that traffic?

Getting Paid: Small businesses now have many ways to get paid over the Internet, and safely, too. The old days of worrying about where your credit card info just went are practically over. Millions of transactions each day are conducted safely over the Internet.

Physical Delivery Systems: As you know by just watching TV, FedEx and UPS can get your products to anywhere in the world. You don’t need a store in Belgium now; you just need to ship the goods! Fortunately, the buyers are accustomed to paying for the shipping, so it’s not a cost to the seller.

Local Traffic: The Internet now has the ability to create local traffic for local businesses. Frankly, that is my specialty. This is a fascinating field, as we are able to see the results with real people-traffic walking in your door. For me, there is nothing as gratifying as seeing a small business owner realize for the first time that the Internet can actually help drive local traffic to his own business! So many small business owners still think that the Internet is only about world-wide traffic. Thanks to some big changes in the search engine algorithms, we can now enjoy local traffic first, before venturing out to the world markets.

In the upcoming columns, I’ll talk about how we actually go about creating all this wonderful traffic to your store/office. I’ll discuss the proper ways to build your website, and how to communicate with the prospects. If you have any specific questions, please contact me at the email provided below.

Chuck Hall, MCSE, is an Internet marketing consultant, specializing in local Internet traffic building. Email your questions to info@WebMarketingofNorthFlorida.com

Well, I had the pleasure of hosting the Web Marketing Small Business Workshop this past Thursday at the Hampton Inn here in Fernandina Beach. The room was overbooked, as we had to bring more chairs!

Everyone seemed to have a good time. Lots of discussion about Internet Marketing and offline marketing, too.

We will be having another one on August 20th, 2009. the topic will be “Ezine Your Way to Success”. I’ll be showing small business owners how to create their very own online magazine!

Here is an exerpt I stole from John Cow, and it is terrific. It says what I have been telling my students all along.

It relates to ‘how to position yourself’ when it comes to relating to your customers. This is HARD advice to follow….it is our nature to dump all over a prospect if we think that he MIGHT buy something from us.

Read and ponder……

This is the crux of it: you are just trying to further the information about your industry out there; you’re trying to provide a service to your buyer persona’s that will make their life easier. You are not trying to sell them anything. You are, however, establishing yourself as an authority in your niche, or, as I like to call it, a Trusted Expert.

‘How can this help my business?’ you ask, ‘How can it make me money if I’m giving away things for free?”

The answer is this: you give information freely (and you put effort into making sure that it’s useful information); this establishes you as an authority in your niche (Trusted Expert!), and when it comes time for purchase, who do you think buyers would prefer to buy from? The guy who has done nothing but try to sell them things, or you, Trusted Expert, the guy who genuinely was trying to help them with their problems. The added benefit of being a Trusted Expert is that it also sets up a relationship that is conducive to additional purchases after the initial conversion; people will keep going back to people they trust.

The web offers you an easy way to spread your ideas to potentially millions of people. If you offer communications that are thoughtful and useful, you have the potential to influence many thousands of your buyers in a way that you would never be able to do by targeting them with traditional marketing and advertising.

This is why you need to start thinking differently; the power of the web requires a different kind of thinking to truly reach people. They’ve been so inundated with advertising from all sources online, you need to do something to differentiate yourself; you need to provide value, for free, before you even begin to try and sell them anything. Become that Trusted Expert your buyers are looking for.

So stop advertising!

Instead, get your ideas out there in a way that is useful, and understand what your buyers want and tell them the stories that they want to hear, that are the answer to their problems. Communications implies that it is two-way, traditional advertising is one-way. You need to start having conversations with your prospects. By engaging their attention with two-way communications, you won’t have to shout at them to get their attention over everyone else. They’ll already be listening to you.

Remember, being a Trusted Expert in all your communications with your buyer persona’s will brand you as someone that people want to do business with.

Thanks again John. Good advice.