Posts Tagged ‘Internet Marketing’
The number of companies that provide Internet marketing services is growing in leaps and bounds and many of them are using email to reach out to their target market: your business! Every day businesses receive unsolicited emails from Internet marketers promising to make your website appear on the first page of Search Engine results for your business category. Even Be Visible gets those emails!
I can’t blame any company for trying to reach new clients by cold emailing. After all, that’s how I got Be Visible started (and I still have most of the first clients I contacted that way!) But, the web is still too new and complicated for a “formula” email sales pitch to be successful.
Here’s an example:
One of my clients owns a commercial cleaning company that specializes in green cleaning solutions. They don’t do homes or apartments, and they have a very specific type of clients such as office buildings, private schools and restaurants. We’ve been running an adwords campaign on Google and working with them on their SEO. It’s tricky because we have to make sure that we are using their budget to reach only the correct decision makers, and that involves consistent analysis of their program, adjusting budgets, making irrelevant keywords negative, and much more. We have worked for two years to lower their cost per click and to get them the best ROI.
My client recently received an email from a company promising to get them better results.
Here’s an excerpt from the email:
“Hi,
My name is xxxxx and I’m with xxxxxxxx.org. I was just searching for Office Cleaning, Green Cleaning and School Cleaning in New York and it turns out that your company is missing some relevant keywords compared to similar businesses. I thought you might want to see this.
You can see your full list of recommended keywords here and explore options for improving your position on search engines.”
So, we clicked on the link and here is their list of recommended keywords and my client’s page rankings:
Here’s what is wrong:
- My client doesn’t work in New Jersey, and we don’t display their ads there.
- My client doesn’t fit into ecological or environmental services (no one looking for office cleaning would search that way),
- My client doesn’t do window washing
- They aren’t a dry cleaner or a commercial laundry
So, what the keyword report really shows that my client’s link is on the first page for their most important services: commercial cleaning, office cleaning, etc. and that’s a result of two years of refining their program to target their most lucrative market.
So, I commend my competitor in reaching out to offer solutions to businesses, but it’s obvious that they didn’t put in any time to understand the business, which would have taken 2 seconds by going to the website. My competitor is selling the way the Yellow Pages always did: “If you throw enough sxxx at the wall, something will stick!” And we all know how much customer loyalty the Yellow Pages achieved!
So, if you get any unsolicited emails making great promises to help your business achieve visibility on the web, please feel free to forward them to me. I promise, I’ll give you an honest assessment. After all, there are other companies besides Be Visible who can find the right combination of all the Internet marketing options available for your business. But, I assure you, there are not too many that work as hard as we do to understand your business’ needs, goals and market.
Happy Holidays!
Tags: Be Visible, Be Visible Associates, Email Marketing, Email Pitches, Internet Marketers, Internet Marketing
Posted in Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
December 16th, 2010
Social Media is Sexy
By “sexy” I mean alluring and enticing. And Social Media is just that for marketers.
- It’s immediately accessible.
- It can give you instant feedback.
- It enables you to touch your customers individually.
- Public usage is growing like wildfire.
- It’s fun!
In the past year I have attended countless workshops, seminars, and programs to educate myself on how I can help my clients use Social Media effectively to reach their goals. I have set-up profiles and pages, developed campaigns, and coached my clients on blogging, using Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn and Twitter. And we are seeing good results (even my dentist is getting new patients from his Social Media effort!).
But…last week one of my clients told me that he was encouraged by a friend in marketing to discontinue his Paid ads on the Search Engines (which have been responsible for a huge increase in his revenues) in favor of Social Media marketing. Hang on a minute there!
Paid Search is still the only guaranteed way for many types of businesses to be in front of their target market on Search Engines. Yes, Social Media can increase your company’s Internet footprint, but it can’t substitute for Paid Search for:
- Having control over where your message appears.
- Having control over when your message appears.
- Being where your competitors are (remember, your brand can be used as a search term).
- Reaching the most targeted ready-to-buy customers.
Social Media IS sexy. So, my advice is: incorporate Social Media into your marketing plans, but take a deep breath and think about what’s working now before you throw away the baby with the bathwater.
Your thoughts?
Tags: Internet Marketing, Managing Time Social Media, Paid Search
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing, Paid Search, Social Media | 2 Comments »
December 14th, 2009
We are living in strange times. Turn one direction and the recession stares you in the face (I’m noticing more and more empty stores in Soho). Turn the other direction, and you ask yourself “What recession?” (I stood in line at CVS for 15 mins the other day).
BIG Research did a study for Stores Magazine this month to find out what Americans will absolutely NOT give up…and guess what topped the list? Internet service! Yes, of all the things that we can do without, we are not giving up our Internet.
Even though times are strange, there are still people using the web. If 1,000 people per month were searching for your services last year at this time, there may be only 500 people per month searching for your services now. But don’t ya wanna be there when they are ready to buy?
So, give up other things…but…don’t give up on the Internet!
Tags: Internet, Internet Marketing, Recession
Posted in Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
February 13th, 2009
If you’re a business owner, it’s likely that you want the world to know that you are the best at what you do. You know that your competitors are using Google to market their services, but would it work for you?
The answer is: maybe. The secret is: you can test it very quickly and economically.
Using Google to test your online market is something that businesspeople are doing all the time. A test program can give you the data you need to decide if its worth a larger investment.
For example:
Do you want to know if your target market actually uses the Web to find your services? Run a test program for 2-3 months…and then analyze the results. Even if you want to reach the entire country, identifying two or three local test markets will give you the information you need to make future decisions. How many visitors did your site get? Did they turn into customers? What’s the return on investment?
Whether you have a small business or work for a large corporation, the concept is the same. Test, analyze and then act based upon what is working. Now you are in control of how you spend your advertising dollars!
Tags: Google advertising, Internet Advertising, Internet Marketing
Posted in Internet Marketing, Paid Search | No Comments »
February 10th, 2009
It’s hard to ignore all the bad news out there. But two recent articles tell me that not only am I in the right place but that my clients are, too.
From the New York Times:
Most retailers, online and offline, appear to be feeling the pain from the rotten economy. But, of course, even in bad times, some businesses manage to do well. Take Raymond Galeotti, the owner and president of Evesaddiction.com, a five-year-old online seller of sterling silver jewelry. Mr. Galeotti said his business, whose annual sales are approximately $10 million, is up about 25 percent this holiday season. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/online-ads-to-thrive-in-a-lousy-economy/
From Businessweek:
Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession
In most media, 2009 will bring unkind cuts, and Madison Avenue will never be the same. But Internet advertising seems to be holding up. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2008/tc20081224_411499.htm<-->
Tags: Internet Marketing, internet marketing articles, Internet Marketing economic crisis
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
January 26th, 2009
Lots of people ask me why they should be using Twitter.
The New York Times published a great blog about using Twitter for your small business.
And here is a terrific video called Twitter in Plain English. Twitter seems to be a great way to communicate…and I want my clients to do more of that. But, keeping Twitter, Facebook and all the social media going is very time consuming. That’s why I am going to be offering Social Media Marketing services to my clients starting right now. I am helping businesses create buzz by using these new social media tools. Whether for branding or just driving relevant traffic to a website, it’s an easy, fun and free way to market.
Tags: Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
December 16th, 2008
