SEO was the clear winner with 32.9% of the vote from 2500 businesses, indicating the power and speed of the shift from traditional print advertising to reach consumer bases. Traditional marketing came 2nd with 19.7% of small to medium sized business owners opting for this medium to market their message and services. It would be interesting to see how this looks next year and what trends develop.

Facebook was the most common use of marketing through all of the businesses asked which perhaps invokes the question, “what role will traditional marketing play in the near future”? We have already seen a large number of campaigns on TV, magazines, radio etc directing the audience to their Facebook page. this is particularly useful for local businesses as Facebook feeds and likes get propagated to their friends who often still live in the local area.

The findings come from a MerchantCircle Survey with most business owners replying having only 4 or less employees working for them. It’s interesting how SEO can be used by business owners to be competitive with more experienced and larger businesses indicating the efficiency of ROI in this exciting marketing medium.

You can learn more about how small business SEO can help your business generate more leads.

He likes to stay active both physically and keeping his mind exploring new, exciting content. He is a lover of Everton FC, small business and enjoys tasty fajitas when he isn’t eating pasta to fuel his running.

Stephen is a keen athlete who visits the gym and runs outdoors at least twice a week to stay fit. He enjoys learning about the mechanics of any small business and has the ability to increase its efficiency through marketing.

By Stephen Holmes

Are you using the same number in your Yellow Page ad as you do for your business phone? If so, how could you possibly know what leads are coming in from the Yellow pages?

If you had a separate number specifically for your Yellow Page, you can work out the ROI on that expense. If I was spending £15k+ per year for an advert, I would want to know what kind of return I was getting on that. How many customers did that £15k generate for me, what did this amount to, is what I am spending justified by my results?

This way, any decision on that marketing spend is concluded with data and absolute, quantified numbers rather than opinion. There is no perspective, just numbers.

The same principle should apply for ANY marketing, including online marketing. You need to track the calls coming from your website so you can adjust your website accordingly, if required. If a low % of people are calling from your website then perhaps you need to tweak the design? Is your contact form below the fold and out of view perhaps?

Perhaps the online audience who call you are of a certain demographic such as teenagers, perhaps then those people need to be treated slightly differently than those who found you from the Yellow Pages? How would you then decide to treat calls that are derived from your website, would you have a younger person deal with those calls to increase conversions?

It is all about refining your business to match the right content, with the right people and in the right way – whilst remaining as effective and efficient as possible. It’s a hard balance, but you cannot improve what you cannot measure. It is a balance however, that can be improved with observation and scrutiny of existing operations.

With that being said, ensure your website telephone number is different from the regular business telephone number.

This is a tip I only share with PAYING offline clients, so ensure you use it to it’s full advantage and cater your business accordingly.

“Ensure you show any award or certifications you have been awarded with on your website, provided they are relevant. This will help position you as more of an expert in the eyes of the user, it helps them feel more relaxed that they are dealing with a “real” company.”

Don’t be tempted to put too much information on your website, just present the most important information customers may need, just enough for them to be happy enough to call you. After all, if the main goal is for them to call you, why would you want them to spend all day on your website browsing content and not pick up the phone? Again, it’s about balance and goals.

If you use the information listed above within a good looking website, that should provide a good platform to build a customer email database that you can market to over and over again.
It will also work as a pre-sell for any of those website visitors, thus making the closing sell much easier for when they do call.

You do however, need to be found online. As I mentioned in part 1 of “Using Your Website”, there is not much point having a website if there is nobody actually using it.

You can be found in a number of different ways. The internet is a massively intricate link network that connects various pieces of content with each other. Most of your traffic (online visitors) is likely to come from Google I do however want you to be aware that you don’t have to rely on Google, or even search engines in general for that matter.

Let’s talk about Google. The worlds largest search engine receiving (approximately) a colossal 70% of all internet searches. It makes sense to focus on this initially for obvious reasons, especially when new data coming out of the US suggests that almost 70% of ALL internet searches are now of LOCAL INTENT. That’s you!

The UK and US markets are undoubtedly different, however this new data certainly sets a precedent for the vector in which new business acquisition is going – and it is going online. All we need to focus on now is putting you at the top of those searches.

If you are not on page 1 of Google for highly “relevant” searched for phrases, you may not get any visitors to your website from those searches. Seriously, nobody will see your website in the search engine results if you are not at least on the first page.

How do I know this?

Let’s say that “plumber in Manchester” is searched for 1,000 times per month. By the time you get to page 2, there is very little people still looking for a relevant website, in this case – a plumber. It is the top listings that will get most of the traffic and that is where you need to be.
This can be achieved by something you may have heard of, it is called SEO and it stands for search engine optimisation.

SEO is the manipulation (in a good way) of a search engine algorithm (in this case Google’s), to put a website as high as possible when somebody types something in that you may want to rank for such as “plumber in Manchester”.

Seeing as the higher you are in Google for a keyword or phrase, the more visitors you will attract and thus we want to be as high as possible. Your own market will have it’s own popular phrases people will be using when looking for what you provide but, part of what Top Seo Liverpool offer is to research and find the best keywords to target for your business. This way you know you are going for the best keywords you possibly can.

Do you think if you had a plumbing business in Manchester and you were being REFERRED by GOOGLE to potential customers, that you may get a few more calls a month..? I think you would too.

While I am not going to explain the nuts and bolts of SEO, as an SEO expert I would like to warn you about renegade “SEO companies” who prey on small local business. So with that in mind here is an acid test for you to use should you decide to hire an SEO company.

Any online marketing strategy is built on the foundations of good keyword research. Before a good company will initiate trying to rank you for a keyword they first need to establish (through different aspects of keyword and competition data) whether or not it is what’s known as a “money keyword”.

Firstly, the number of monthly searches needs to be determined.

If there are very few searches for a keyword then there may well be no point in trying to appear highly in the search engines for it. If it gets less than 50 searches a month for example, it is going to get you less customers than a keyword that gets say 500 searches a month.

Secondly, the lower the level of competition for that keyword – the better. If a keyword is so competitive that you will struggle to rank for it, then it may be more beneficial to target lower competition keywords with a good number of searches, as opposed to the highest or most popular keyword that exists.

Both of these points need to first be researched in depth by those doing your SEO, if they give you promises or guarantees before looking into your specific niche in your specific town, how could they possibly come to the decisions of what keyword to target if they don’t have search data or know your current competitors online? Are they guessing?

If they ask you what keywords you wish to rank for and say, “ok we will get started as soon as possible” run!

So if they are happy to go for a keyword without first analysing the keyword data and competition, they haven’t got a clue – yet alone any other aspect of SEO (and SEO is a very extensive subject).
So… just be careful or 6 months later you will be in the same position as you are now, but more out of pocket.

SEO isn’t the only way to attract visitors. Social Media, Web 2.0, press releases, newsletters, email campaigns – they should all be part of your online marketing strategy.

If you would like to know more about how seo can help your business Call 0151 329 2303

Read the next part of the internet marketing series;

They are designed and increasingly being utilised by advertisers on static media such as billboards, magazines etc to act as a gateway to digital media. This includes apps, websites and even virtual coupons.

The flexibility and relatively low cost of the QR code is an attractive and potentially creative proposition for even some of the biggest brands in the world.

They have been used by coffeshops such as Starbucks to allow you to pay for your coffee, they have been used on top of cupcakes for coupons and Calvin Klein even had a massive QR code on a billboard located in Time Square.

The codes are all over Japan, you could probably use a smart phone from space,take a snapshot and get a coupon because they are so commonplace. There was 42.1% growth in USA in Q3 2011 with companies looking for new ways they can exploit this old technology.

QR codes have been around for a while, even in the 90′s. The fact they are only just catching on now suggests the rise of digital media whether it be on the internet or on smartphones (See graph 4 of Infographic for smartphone sales growth), has allowed the QR code to become increasingly practical as a marketing tool that connects and excites.

Click Infographic to Enlarge

In depth analytics to track ROI and usability helps to refine and examine campaign functionality rather than codes becoming a fad.

Interested in QR codes? Contact us to see how they could help your business connect with your audience.

Supermarkets adopted the potential for creating and handling aspects of business through the digital world and introduced home delivery many years back to push forward the ethos that makes them such an integral part of everyday life.

From growing, gathering and distributing food, to having it ready for consumption, anything that has never been essential for us to do ourselves yet get the same result… was done for us. This now includes delivery too, why get your own food when you can have someone do it for you? Why complete the weekly chore if you can simply order online, save your favourites and merely click when you need a refill – all whilst watching Family Guy or QI?

To be able to enjoy a sizzling rump steak or create a home made lasagne using fresh and ready ingredients without even having to step into a rammed supermarket, is as tantalising as it is tangible. It is at the precipice of a new shopping paradigm that we find ourselves now, but only if the supermarkets get it right.

Yesterday I ordered over £100 worth of food and could taste the pixels as I chose next day delivery, “it shall be here in time for tea” I thought. And so it was.

Just before 5 and indeed just as they had promised, my delivery had arrived. Not once this week had Tescos felt the loud squeak from my brand new canvas whites, yet, my hallway was awash with all kinds of goodies wrapped in a copious number of Tesco’s famous plastic bags. Bags tied so tightly you could argue, nobody ever wanted you to see what was hidden away inside. This turned out to be true. Although, I hesitate to add the word unfortunately as this would suggest luck was in any way involved. Now common sense, this certainly wasn’t invited to this disaster of a party.

Now, one of the reasons I had ordered before 5 was so that I could use the contents to fill the stomachs of 4 expecting guests, as a result I decided not to spend 5 hours copiously untying each bag which had seemingly been bound together with a spell learned from Hogwarts.

Remnants of Tesco Milk

My initial reaction to the delivery wasn’t favourable as I was greeted with the ugly duckling of all milk bottles. Bashed in, I was assured, as a result of speed bumps and dripping at the hilt onto my unsuspecting laminate flooring. Thankfully not carpet or I may not have been so polite. Accidents do happen, so it’s important not to overreact and I let it slide. Perhaps feeling safeguarded by my manners however, the highly intelligent delivery man assigned to assassinate my dreams of an even more convenient world, decided it would be a good idea to place my shopping all over the area he had placed the 6 pints of dripping milk.

2 More Rooms Were To Be Infected… if They Only Knew.

Perhaps he was a secret agent, disguised as a Tesco delivery man with the mission to turn my home into the remnants of a milk factory. He could have simply been bored and devised a game of “how many rooms can I infiltrate with milk” (3 if you were wandering). Perhaps he thought he should use initiative and decided the bags would make a useful sponge. I’d ask God what he was thinking, but I suspect he may just look at me and shrug apologetically.

After tearing through the now milk induced sides and praying my door isn’t pounded down by a hoard of individuals grasping boxes of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, I realised the non degradable, plastic bags had been rendered useless. I began to unpack each item from their temporary homes and give them a less temporary one and rather more accommodating. Before filling the bellies of my cupboards I checked the dates of some of the items and found a pattern more disturbing than the living room wallpaper of a 1960′s hippy.

Now, as I write – the date is the 8th September at 6pm. Baring in mind I have just spent £100 on food, I check the 2KG of carrots and see the 12th September precariously written in black and white, the bag seemingly giving me a slight smirk as if to say “come on, what did you expect? You know this is all too good to be true”.

“Oh well I sigh, can’t get everything right”. But, surely not all of the shopping follows the same date, of the 12th, the 12th…… again, the 12th. All in all ladies and gentlemen, Tesco’s apparently expect me to consume not just 2KG of carrots by the 12th September 2011 but also;

2 Loaves of Kingsmill Bread
2 x 4 Pack of Jacket Potato
2 x Broccoli
2 x 2.5KG Maris Piper Potatoes
200g Cherry tomatoes
12 Apples
4 Fillets of Chicken Breast

Now, I enjoy an odd bite to eat but I think I’d struggle to eat anywhere near what will be perished in less than 4 days time. If I ate even a quarter of the above over the course of 4 days then I would be so loaded with carbs the only way I’d ever get food would be home delivery. Maybe I could order new size 16 clothes from Tesco direct, I wonder if they do delivery? Perhaps I unwittingly just exposed the brilliantly evil plan of Tesco to fatten us up and deliver us a new wardrobe. Do they sell treadmills?

The fact so many of the items above share a close synergy and were bought often in pairs, is perhaps the most disturbing of all today. When you realise a shopper walks around the store and adds these items to your basket manually, you would perhaps optimistically hope that an ounce of common sense would be applied. Ok, I can understand Tesco wanting to get rid of the more recent dated items but surely, not all in one go?

There are only so many potatoes a man can eat in a given time period. I certainly have no desire to attempt to prove otherwise. Please, Tesco delivery shoppers, take some advice from countdown. You only ever take 1 from the front and the rest from the back. Take a 12th September and then mix it up a bit with a 20th – live once in a while! Save my poor trousers, that would look good on a sticker of some sort. A campaign against obesity derived from supermarket ineptness.

As a last point and one that is disturbing to me. The use of so many refuse bags, surely a bottle of lemonade doesn’t need it’s own separate bag? Especially not when 3 were ordered. What’s so special about lemonade?

It’s disappointing to see an opportunity to create something special, so sloppily wasted. Easy fixes that render an entire prospect useless. Until it changes, until I KNOW when I order online from Tesco and don’t fear for my waistline – only then can I consider trusting them again. With 30% of my shopping this week wasted, their price comparison marketing campaign looks rather useless when you consider you might save £5/week vs Sainsbury’s – it all adds up you know.

Maybe Tesco will rethink their sums and realise you can’t simply push the junk on th audience of earlier adopters if you want them to influence those who have yet to adopt. I just hope excessive greed and negligence doesn’t over extend itself to the extent it contradicts the reason for such convenience in an area that can undoubtedly become more popularised for supermarkets – for the ones that get it right at least.

When I see the amount of money business are making from being online, it really amazes me that some companies don’t even have a website yet. It doesn’t however surprise me, that many people who do have a website think it’s time to sit back and wait for the money to roll in.

That should be it right? You are “online” and now people should find you…

I often ask them “how”?

Usually I am greeted by a puzzled face, but understandably so.

A business owner is there to run their business. Quite often they set up their business because they are an expert in their field, a professional. Perhaps they are a dentist, a plumber or a solicitor.
How would they know about online marketing? Perhaps as a business owner you are exactly the same. It is completely understandable for a business owner to be unaware of how it all works, but that is one of the main reasons I wrote this series.

If you can understand how the internet can help your business, if you can see the potential it provides, it can be a goldmine. It can become an integral aspect of the way in which your business operates, an asset that adds value to your business.

With that said, I will now explain why a website is useless if not used correctly.
Your website is a digital representation of your business. In the same way your bricks and mortar premises, your logo, signs and adverts give your company an identity, so does your website.
This presents the question, what does your website say about you?

Assuming your website can be found, (I shall elaborate on this in a moment) will it portray the image you wish it to? What is the goal of your website and does it fulfil this goal?
If your website is designed poorly, looks cheap and makes the visitor think twice about your company, you may have just lost a customer. Make no mistake – that is a real customer, who could have called you up and bought your product or used your services.

As a local business, that same visitor may then tell their family and friends how awful the website was. You can have the best product or service in the world, but I can guarantee you that the website will not have reflected that to them.

Imagine having your services scrutinised simply because you have a poorly designed website? Welcome to the modern era of business. Perception is everything, how you are perceived to be, can become the crux of your very success or failure.

Do Starbucks make the best coffee? Do McDonald’s serve the best food? Any business model needs more than just a product , but think about the following:

What if you could help to “control” how you are seen online? What if every time somebody read about your business, they liked what they read and liked what they saw?

Press releases about your latest offers, newsletters about the leading business in your area – that’s you by the way. Starting to see what all of the fuss is about?

An online advertising hub that includes thousands of people in your community, growing faster than any other media outlet in the history of mankind.
The internet is a double edged sword but I can assure you, if you use it properly, it can help your business to prosper more than you may have imagined.

If you have a visitor on your website, we want them to call you up and buy what you have to offer. There are various ways we can increase the number of people who do exactly this.

Firstly the website needs to look good, to express and correlate your company identity.

They will make a judgement about your business from your website within the first 2-5 seconds of arrival. It is important to keep them on the page by using images, none cluttered text and ensuring the website is easy to navigate (your content is easily accessed).

You want to capture their details so that you can contact them in the future about offers or events. Don’t forget you may be online, but it is still business and fundamental business principles need to be applied, “Don’t find a customer to make a sale, make a sale to find a customer”.
We want this visitors email address so we can begin to build up a relationship with them, establish trust and make them a life time customer – not just a one off. You can have a contact or download form on your website, make sure it is visible and towards the top half of your website.
A visitor to your website however will not just give you their name and email for free, “what’s in it for me” – remember?

You will need to give them something for free in exchange for their contact details, a free report or anything that may be relevant and of value to them such as a coupon for their next visit.
You will want your phone number at the top of the website so it is easily visible. In some industries this is even more important such as plumbers. If somebody has a plumbing emergency and they need somebody a.s.a.p, do you think they are going to trawl through a website to find it or go to the next website?

In my offline consulting business, the number of people who do not track their marketing campaigns is astonishing. You cannot control what you cannot measure and having a way of measuring your marketing will enable you to test, refine and save money. Knowing what does and doesn’t work will not just save you money, but it will help you to create more effective marketing for the future.

Part 2 Of “Websites Don’t Have To Be Useless” Continues Here

Definition: The Unique Selling Proposition (also Unique Selling Point) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands.

The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.

Today, a number of businesses and corporations currently use USPs as a basis for their marketing campaigns.

Why should I use your business?

It’s something that is likely to make you choke when you hear it, but most clients I ask greet me with the same reply:
“We have the best service” or “We’re really friendly”.

Unfortunately, every other business in that industry would probably say the same thing, apart from the competitors who are doing it right. This is the most important question anyone can ever ask about your business.

In fact, it is “THE” question your customers are asking EVERY single day.
See, if you aren’t different in a good way, you become lost in all of the noise, all of that marketing clutter. The yellow pages is a good example of this, all of those adverts crying out for attention, the only problem being that everyone else has the same idea. You need to take away the confusion and it is your responsibility to invoke some clarity.

Although this series is going to be focused on the secrets of how local business can use the internet, secrets I even use myself for offline clients, I will also transpose fundamental business principles to be constantly considered for you to apply within your online marketing.
When I meet with a new client, it isn’t unusual for me to spend a fair portion of the time on this question, because I know how important it is.

You just need to answer, “why you”? Sounds easy, right?

This is usually something you will need to spend some time on, but it will be worth it simply because it is so profitable. When you find your USP, everything else becomes much easier and with this in mind, it amazes me when I discover just how few businesses actually have a “real” USP in their marketing.

As mentioned earlier, your USP is not an opinion. It is not a bias based up what you think you USP “should” be.

A superb example of a great USP is Dominoes Pizza. “We will deliver your pizza to you within 30 minutes or the pizza is on us”.

WOW!

Now that is something people will remember about you and probably got people talking about the company.

Who do you then think people thought of when they did need a pizza..?
People were ordering pizzas left right and centre just to see if they actually delivered on time! It was a massive success and do you know what? It took that small pizza company to the massive franchise that it is today, just because of a USP being used properly. Yup, it made that business.
Now having a USP isn’t enough alone, it needs to be “used” within your marketing, otherwise how does anyone ever know what your USP is?

Your USP can be one of the single most powerful aspects of your business if you can use it correctly.

If you have a USP then great, if not then find one! It is ok if it takes time or you struggle slightly because it is so important that you have one.

You now need to ensure that it is in every single aspect of your marketing and although the main focus of this series is teaching local business the power of online marketing and how to utilise it, it is important to understand that your online marketing “is” part or your “marketing”.
They are not separate entities and should not be treated as such.

I mention this here now because you guessed it, your USP needs to be applied to your online marketing too – Your website, in your emails, newsletters, press releases, everything.

Your staff needs to know it too – so make sure they do, especially people who deal with customers face to face or handle the phones.

There are different ways of finding your USP, but often business owners find it difficult to identify their own. This is usually a result of having worked in the business for so long, they are “too close to the tree to see the forest”. It’s understandable and sometimes you just need to take a step back to see everything from a new perspective, from the customer’s perspective if possible. What do they see, or rather – what do you want them to see? This should not be a chore, but an opportunity.
Let’s take a look again at the Yellow Pages to see a real life example of “differentiate or die”. Adverts everywhere and very little room to distinguish yourself. If one of my clients was paying good money for an advert, I would want to ensure that people were looking at their ad space rather than anybody else’s. Why should they though?

Open up the directory and have a look at the 2 open pages for any given category and what do you see? Most if not all of the adverts convey the SAME MESSAGE! The scary part is that most businesses have no idea they are doing it so wrong. Usually this comprises of the following:

Company name
Address
Telephone number

Some of the company features such as long established, family run, friendly service (not benefits).
Company history or a random excerpt “about them” or “their business”.

The reason people place ads is to be seen but, if every advert in a directory looks the same, you are seriously wasting capital that could have been used elsewhere. Then when people don’t get the phone calls they expected, they say marketing doesn’t work.

Marketing works – it just needs to be implemented correctly. If you haven’t derived a USP from your business, something that defines you, then you haven’t prepared your marketing for success – “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. What was your marketing being applied to previously?
Don’t worry if this sounds like you, be optimistic and remember that you can begin the process of implementing correct strategies that will bring you more business.
So if you don’t have a USP to apply your marketing to ( any type of marketing), then you are wasting time, money and resources. The same goes for a Yellow Page ad.

If I’m a customer who needs a plumber and I’ve got water all over my kitchen floor, pipes leaking, water gushing everywhere – do you really think the first thing I check for is to see if it is a family run company?

I’m a customer. I care about “me”. So, WIIFM? “What’s in it for me”? What are the benefits your business will give to a customer?

Is it price? Will you be there within 30 minutes of any emergency call? Do new customers get a 10% discount on everything?

Why should I use your business?

That was straight to the point, but it needed to be. This is where so many businesses leave money on the table, by assuming customers care about things that don’t affect them.
Let’s try to quantify the questions that are your priority to answer:

1. What benefits will a customer receive from using your business.
2. In what ways are you different than any other competitor in your area?

The benefits are what your customers care about, not the features and this concept has been used by the best marketers in the world for a long time, very successfully.

Try to describe what your services or product will do and how it will specifically help anyone that uses them. The brain is a very powerful tool, and as you tell the “story”, people “visualise” the effect this will bring to their life. Even if it is just fixing their leaky pipes, you are helping them get back to normal.

When you visualise the customers perspective, it puts the relevance of your business into context. It gives a reason almost for why it exists in the first place. The main focus should be the customers goal and if that goal is to have the leak in my kitchen fixed as soon as possible and preferably as low cost as possible. Do you really think the fact a company has been established 50 years for example, would really be a priority for them?

Tell me this, why did you create your business? Was it just to simply make money or was it to solve a problem for your customers? The latter is all THEY care about.
If you can fix their problem quickly and efficiently they will love you for it, that is the customers main goal.

The “feature” of your business being 50 years old is irrelevant even if your competitor is only 6 years old – they sold their usp of being cheaper and quicker. Sell your benefits, I cannot stress this enough.

Features are not necessarily wrong, sometimes they can help with association and they have other uses too. However, if you ensure your benefits are highlighted along side your features…. you could very soon be standing out from the clutter and that, can be very good indeed for your business. If you only have a second to grab someone’s attention, remember it’s the benefits that turn eyes into customers – the features can help you keep that customer for a very long time.

I know the main focus for this series is to educate local business owners about the power of the internet and what it can do for them. However, it is important for me to outline some of the core principles that need to be applied to your marketing, as they will become the fundamentals of your infrastructure online.

I could teach you everything you need to know about online marketing, but if you are not applying the core aspects of your business properly to this type of marketing, then there would be a lot of unnecessary waste.

In the next section of this multiple part series I will show you how you can apply those core marketing principles through the various online media streams that will allow you to implement an efficient online marketing strategy.

Before we continue, here are some tips on how you can find your USP:

1. Try to quantify the features and benefits of your company, what differentiates yourself from the competition in your local market? How big is the problem you solve? The value you provide? Is it the speed of your service and so forth..?

2. Try to find the benefit most appreciated by your target market. Which would be at the top of their agenda when they needed a service or product such as what your provide? You could even survey your customers to gather market research data to aid your decision of what is most important to them.

3. Now try to match answers from list one and list 2. If you find you have a significant strength that your data suggests customers want, it could possibly be a good USP to go with. This isn’t a must, you could have created the product that created an industry, it’s just a good place to start and a good method if you are struggling. Remember – dig deep to differentiate yourself.

(Part 3 will be here on September 4th).

Top Seo Liverpool will be publishing several fundamental articles in the principles of online marketing and why the age of 1′s and 0′s can add up to more than you thought possible.

The internet is a global phenomenon that connects users from around the world to share ideas, knowledge and experiences.

It is as a gateway of opportunity allowing users to communicate and interact with each other or for a company to interact with users within a market.

Never before has local business been presented with such a vivid opportunity to understand their own community, to understand their local market more in depth than ever before and to communicate with them in real time.

Sadly however, this mega medium is not only underused, but it is often utilised incorrectly due to it being so widely misunderstood.

The internet can be a powerful tool for a local business, if used correctly. I will show you how you can harness this new medium to attract new customers – and keep them.

The internet can connect you with your local market, allowing you to build and just as importantly, maintain relationships with your local community easier than ever before.

Never has a local business been able to build such a strong foundation of customer relationships within their marketplace than today and they can do so through online media.

This revolution can allow you to become incredibly competitive right now and also for the long term future of your business. These foundations are strong, affordable to build and accessible.
As traditional business directory’s like the yellow pages dies, having an online presence that can engage your audience is more important than ever. Those that fail to adapt to the global changes being made as a direct result of the internet, will be left behind locally.

Don’t be one of them – using sources like Google local listings known as Google Places (similar to Yellow Pages but Free) can help your business thrive and this book will help you understand more about the potential that online marketing can bring to you and your company.

Are you ready to go down the rabbit hole?

As more and more people in the UK have access to computers and the internet, as people use the internet more frequently – offline media begins to die. It is important to remember that offline media will not die an immediate death and today still has its uses, thus abandoning this medium in its entirety isn’t prudent, having an exit strategy for the inevitable future, is.

Sinking Ship

Yell – the biggest UK local business directory continues to lose customers and viewership as people begin to flock to Google to make their local business search for example,” dentist in Liverpool”.
People looking for the best restaurant now consult their iphone rather than a bulky book.
It allows them to find more details regarding a business than what the yellow pages can provide, it allows them to discover the benefits of using your business or it can be the reason they never call you at all.

If you searched for a business online and found nothing at all, or simply did not like the impression generated from what you discovered, would you call? Or would this plant a seed of doubt in your mind, “why are they hiding”?

Why would it be any different for your business?

Do people even search for you online, your brand, your company name? If so how many? Or is the fact of the matter that your market is actually searching for the product or service type that you provide? Do you even know the answer to those questions at this moment in time?

As technology changes, as innovation changes the landscape in which we live and how we do business, those who secure the long term future of their companies are those who have been successful in adapting “with” such changes. You can either fight the change, or use it.

Whether or not you decide to act on the information I shall provide to you within this book, you will make a choice. The internet is here to stay.

This is the fine virtual line that the internet draws. Which side of it you build your foundations on will undoubtedly be the architect of your long term success or a derelict land with unfertile soil where nothing will grow.

If somebody searches and cannot find you, who else will they find? You can bet your competition hope you put this book down and do nothing because they are getting all of the extra business the internet is sending their way.

Notice how I haven’t even mentioned a website? A website is NOT a web presence. Sure you can pitch your business within its pages but if nobody finds them, what’s the point? You may as well have a billboard in the desert.

It is no longer about what does your website say about you but rather, what does your web presence say about you? What image do you portray?

Do you think a stronger online identity could help you attract more customers? Do you think you are using it as much as you could do, or are you one of the many business in the UK who are leaving money on the table? Are you avoiding the internet through fear of the unknown? I understand why some would wish to avoid it, I myself was fortunate enough to own a PC and a dial up connection when I was still in primary school, I was the first person I knew of to have it. I grew up with the internet, but you simply cannot avoid it now, nor can you afford to be complacent in the execution of your online marketing.

Would you love to dominate the Google search listings with press releases, reports and more?
It can be done, it does take time, but it can be incredibly lucrative. Do not take the value within the contents of these articles lightly – use it.

After reading these articles, you will see the internet as your friend, not as a bewildering enemy you are apprehensive to understand. I will help you to visualise the future of your business with a strong online identity that will serve you, that will attract new customers you have never been able to reach and allow you to position yourself so highly in your marketplace – that your new found customers won’t even consider leaving you.

Welcome to the new age of your local business empire, welcome to the internet.

Note how I don’t necessarily say the success of a business is down to the quality of products or services sold.

Do Starbucks make the best coffee? Do McDonalds make the best food?

The “perception” or “experience” of a product or service if marketed correctly can increase the value of that product, even if this value is only perceived (the brain is a very powerful tool). Of course, marketing isn’t simply enough on its own, as there are other aspects to consider and some of which I will entail in this short article. I will be showing you how to make your business more profitable and efficient during a recession and beyond.

If You Do Anything Well, Let It Be Marketing

I am sure you realise marketing is important, without it how do people know you exist, how do people know they can trust you enough to buy?

The difference in success for many local businesses however, is just about “how” they market. The best product doesn’t always win, the people who market better – usually do.

I am going to give you a better insight into just how you should be marketing your business from a fundamental perspective.

Once you have sold to someone before, it is a lot easier to sell to them again assuming you can do so in your industry.
Dentists, plumbers and other industries alike are all in the same boat and are great markets to be in when you can build a meaningful relationship with your client base.

It is called top of mind awareness or TOMA and marketing to people who have already paid for your products or services before are much more likely to choose you again when they need what you sell, provided that you have positioned yourself correctly.
If you can be “Joe the plumber” rather than “a plumber”, “my dentist” instead of “a dentist”, then that’s a good start.

Can you think of a company that can survive without repeat business? If a business had to constantly look for new customers and spend money doing so through marketing – it simply wouldn’t survive.
“Don’t find a customer to make a sale – make a sale to find a customer”.

Once a sale has been made, it is then imperative to keep in constant communication with them to remind them very subtly that you are there if they should need you.

There are several ways to do this from quarterly (depending on your market) newsletter marketing, email marketing and autoresponders amongst others, but you need to be touching base with these people every so often but you also have to do it right.

Lost customers or lost leads.
A question I often ask the business owners I meet is “What is it you are doing with people who don’t buy from you”?

When consulting with clients I still today am confronted with a puzzled face.

“What do you mean lost leads? They don’t buy..”.

“Yes” I always reply, “so what are you doing to change that”?

Still confused I explain why this is so important, not just directly to your own bottom line but the competitiveness of your own business – If they don’t buy from you, then who will they buy from?

If a customer doesn’t buy, then you need to be drip feeding them with information over a period of time to tell them about you, your company and your products/services. To be able to do this you need to capture their details in one form or another, usually their email address.

If they didn’t buy from you that time, then you need to ensure that when they do go to make a purchase – it’s from you.
If most companies knew how much money they were leaving on the table they would not sleep.

Finding the time to be able to implement everything required to ensure that the money on the table is swiftly collected can certainly be difficult, so you just need to make sure the everyday running of your business is not affected by taking on everything at once.
The sooner it is done however, the stronger your business will be.

You then need to ask yourself, do you have an email database?
If the answer is yes then, what are you doing with it?
How are you currently utilising this list of consumers to increase your revenue?
During a recession or in hard economic times, the businesses that can make their assets sweat and plug their profit leaks to improve cash flow, will have a much better chance of being able to survive.
Not only can these companies survive but, they can use the current economic climate as an opportunity, but how so?

When people spend less and a business’s cash flow begins to take a negative turn, the first thing people generally do is panic.
When they panic they make cuts and marketing typically is one of the first things I tend to find that goes.

Bills need to be paid and cash flow is quite rightly the life blood of any business, so it is important to keep it positive. Cutting marketing however is not the only way to do this and certainly not something I teach my clients to do.

“Lack of cash flow is like a heart attack and can kill you off in an instant, but lack of profit is like a cancer that will kill you off slowly”.
How do people find your business?

Marketing is what enables us to tell consumers that you exist and there just happens to be different types and streams of media to do this.

As technology develops there are many more ways to do this effectively.

When you stop marketing however, will your phones stop ringing?
How are your customers finding you?

Do you think that an effective marketing strategy to existing customers would be more effective than pray and spray to strangers?
Would you agree past customers are more likely to buy from you and easier to generate revenue from?

Of course they would which is why it is important not to just sell to them, but build a relationship with them. People don’t like to be sold to, they like to buy.

Scoop up your competitors whilst the economy is at a low and they are questioning their future- why wait until optimism kicks in and your rivals are back with a vengeance in a position where they can bite harder, when you can swallow them up now to avoid any potential threats in the future.

Instead of cutting marketing budgets, people need to market better.
Make your assets, whether tangible or not, sweat. Make them work for you otherwise; what’s the point in having them?
See, any business can be successful in a boom and when the economy is great.

When the economy takes a negative turn however, it is the stronger businesses with solid foundations who will be able to do well and survive the storm.

It is important to build those solid foundations now and for the future to secure long term growth and sustainability.

As your competitors give up market share by cutting their own marketing budget, eat it up and take it for yourself by targeting those people. This can be done through your website, SEO and other online marketing tools such as social media.
It can also be done through offline marketing which if pursued, would need to be tested and tracked to ensure a return is being made for the money you spend.

The number of business owners who do not even track their Yellow Page ad is frightening. Especially when you consider it can be done very cheaply to ensure this is actually how people are finding your business. Are you tracking your own Yellow Page listing?
If you discovered that nobody found you through the yellow pages, would you still pay £10,000 plus per annum for it?

Medias such as the yellow pages are falling victim to the technological age, where people want to find more than just a yellow page listing – they want more than that..
Local search is hotting up online as more and more people tend to “Google it” instead.

This makes having a good website that is positioned well in Google for your keywords extremely important, but will vary depending on the type of business you are.

Someone may search for “plumber in London” for example and being number one in the Google search engine for it may mean you get that customer, whereas had you not been there – you wouldn’t.
Have you ever thought about what the internet could do for you?
A website is also a great opportunity to begin a new relationship with a potential customer because you can capture their contact details online and market to them until they buy.

It also allows you to keep in touch and build the type of relationship with them in your community that any local business would thrive from.

If you can have a great reputation in your community then that can mean a large increase in yearly revenue and the type of loyalty that can help through an economic storm, but you also have to keep these customers for the long term.

A successful company simply HAS to have a fantastic customer retention program to not only survive, but to thrive.
Email distribution is a great way to do this, provided it is done correctly. You don’t want to appear spammy.

I have seen many people who actually hurt their business by not analysing the information they send out to consumers and turning those people off.
You can now track the responsiveness of an email campaign and adjust your next series of emails accordingly, which helps assess your market and increase your customers responsiveness.

Social Media
Things like Twitter, Facebook and yelp are all fantastic ways of communicating with your market. If you are everywhere online it gives the appearance of being modern, being up to date and accessible.

Social media is expanding rapidly and if you are not using it, you need to be sooner rather than later.
If you have the same price as your competition, the same service and quality and if your competitors are being seen online constantly by your local community, when it comes to making a purchase – who do you think they will choose if you aren’t doing the same?

Google Local Search Listing
Yellow Pages is dying off quite rapidly due to the fact people want to know more about a company before they commit to anything and they now get that information online – presuming they can find you.
Google Local or Google Map listings are a great way to get some extra exposure online and they can be optimised too which means if you know what you are doing, you can get to the top of the pile.

This guide is by no means definitive but it will hopefully serve as an eye opener to what can be done.

I wish you and your business success now and for the future, I encourage you to leave me your opinion in the comments below for me to review.

Top SEO are experts within the SEO industry with packages designed to help SME’s generate more business from people already searching online for their services. We get the phone ringing – you do the rest.

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