MDS Resource — Digital Ad Agency

Tag: web page

  • Reputation Management: 10 Things You Can Do To Repair Your Online Reputation

    Reputation Management And Your First Impression

    Who says you never get a second chance to make a first impression? Indeed, you may have a second chance, especially if that first chance was taken from you. In this world where your reputation is everything and your name is far more than mere label, reputation management is a business necessity.

    Internet media is complicated. Now we are all exemplary publishers and we the people build and extend the Internet a little bit more every day! Not only can anybody contribute; but, there are no rules regulating what is said, in which venue and how close any of it is to truth.

    Who’s to stop a vindictive person from anonymously complaining online where everybody can see it? Often, by anonymous, it’s true that many of these complainers hide behind a shroud because they cannot withstand the slightest scrutiny. Did you ever know somebody who complains every chance they get? Far from a majority, it only takes one acerbic comment to destroy a beautifully constructed reputation. One bad review from one disgruntled or obnoxious trouble maker and years of carefully crafted integrity can come tumbling down.

    How Can You Repair Online Reputation?

    So, what can you do to put Humpty Dumpty back together again? Can you really repair a damaged online reputation? Yes, you can repair online reputations. Is it as simple as removing negative online reviews?

    Sadly, no. For the most part, bad reviews are probably carved in Internet stone. But, one bad apple is no reason to throw out the whole bushel.

    Ten Effective Reputation Management Practices

    1. Review Sites

      Review sites, also known as citation sites, are essential to successful reputation management. When people see stars on business reviews, it is social proof that your business has very positive fans. Five stars clearly indicate a winner! Three stars leave people thinking average and so-so.


      What do you think when you see a one or two star rating?

      One way to repair an online reputation is to amass as many five star ratings as possible on many different sits.

    2. Blogs

      Blogs continue to be extremely popular communications tools. Whereas, many estimates count as many blogs as United States population, that number is less important than how business benefits from blogs. Whereas, web pages are intended to present static facets of your business, blog posts are quite different. Blogging allows you to present the day-to-day elements of your business, such as events, success stories and milestones.

      Furthermore, your public audience is invited to comment on and interact with your business through your blog. Therefore, blogs become a chronology of the good things about your business and how your public responds to them over time. A continuous stream of great news eventually removes the effect of negative online reviews.

    3. Pictures

      Yes, a picture is worth at least a thousand words! Even Google recognizes images as their own search category. All else equal, people browsing on the Internet are far more likely to look at pictures than read text.


      Don’t you want your audience to see clean images of your company and happy, smiling faces?

      Cleanup your online reputation by positioning a plethora of positive images high in search results. Basic search engine optimization of your images includes:

      • Main keyword in the image filename
      • Main keyword in the HTML alt tag
      • Keywords in the image description
      • Keywords in the image caption
      • Position images on the page in context

  • Video Testimonials

    Whereas, images are powerful, video is the single most powerful medium on the Internet! So much so, that Google often favors videos over most other online properties in the search results. Have you ever searched and found those remarkable video thumbnails on the 1st search results page?

    We all know that Testimonials are the best marketing promotion you can have, right? Video Testimonials are the most persuasive of all Testimonials. Keep it succinct, to the point and as specific as can be. Then, of course, position your Video Testimonials where they can be easily found and viewed.


    Who will remember that anonymous bad review?

  • Press Releases

    Tell everybody who is anybody what’s going on with your business. Press releases announce noteworthy events and accomplishments. They are designed to attract news media attention, so they can help you spread the word to a larger audience.

    The fact is, you always want a lot of positive attention for your business. You need even more when you’re recovering from bad reviews. Regular press releases help:

    • Generate traffic to your website
    • Give your company more visibility
    • Build your brand
    • Provide credibility and authority

  • Nullify Negative Keywords

    It’s a fact: Many Americans start their fact-finding and decision-making on the Internet. That’s good, isn’t it? Isn’t that why you’re on the web to begin with? They search and when they find you, you have a sales opportunity.

    However, when the 1st search results page includes links associating your company with “scam,” “scammers” and bad reviews, many people cannot get past the negativity. Instead, they use the back button and browse elsewhere.

    Your job, then, is to fill that 1st search results page with positive links to your business, whether they be blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook or citations. The point is, if you have only one reference to your business on a search results page, there are many more opportunities for negativity. Bury a bad review with many positive references to you.

  • Local News

    Your business is part of your local community, isn’t it? How do you participate in your community? Have you contributed to a church group, civic activity or food drive? Do you partner with businesses down the block? Can you help celebrate and appreciate success stories in your neighborhood?

    The local Internet is a great source for local directories, special offers and collaborative opportunities with other local businesses. One of Facebook’s most powerful features facilitates “tagging” other business pages. Celebrate the best of your community online and ask other businesses to do the same. This will demonstrate your positive place in the community.

  • Thread Authority

    Often times, you can participate in forums to express your authority in your field and build credibility. Find a local forum or one specifically about your industry and look for opportunities to help and provide information. When you see a discussion to which you can add value, forget your sales pitch and simply offer great advice and free information.

    When time is right, start a discussion, again offering great advice and free information. You may also write an article to guest blog on some other blog and get a whole new audience remarking about your credibility and perceived authority.

  • Facebook

    Whereas, your website is mostly about your company and what you have to say about it, social media is primarily about what others have to say about you. Facebook is king of social media now, its members being the 3rd largest country in the world:

    1. China
    2. India
    3. Facebook
    4. United States

    Properly managing social media is a critical part of building your reputation in the community. Facebook done right is social proof, whether that be a Like, Share or simply interacting on your Wall. When many people are positively interacting with your Facebook page, newcomers start their relationship with you on a very positive note. Positive social media engagement and interaction is a powerful buffer to negative reviews that may be found elsewhere.

  • LinkedIn

    LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. Thread authority, mentioned above, is especially applicable here, too. By participating in Groups and LinkedIn Answers, you can quickly increase credibility and be seen as an authority in your field.

    LinkdeIn Recommendations, however, warrant mention here as an extremely powerful tool to present positive Testimonials. Whereas, elsewhere reviews and Testimonials are often veiled in anonymity, LinkedIn Recommendations cannot be anonymous. Furthermore, since LinkdedIn members are exclusively professionals, their Recommendations are imbued with professional credibility.


    Nothing squashes an anonymous bad review like a recommendation from a credible professional!

    • Reputation Management Is More Than Putting Out Fires

    Although, you may not be able to remove bad reviews, certainly there are many ways to distract prospects with glowing references to your company. Truly, it takes a lot of work to build a good name and very little to destroy it!

    It’s been said that the best defense is a great offense. The simplest reputation management is to build a wall of glowing reviews before any bad review appears. Short of that, you now see many ways you can repair your online reputation once it’s tarnished.

    Call Now
    Answer Questions: 612-235-6060

  • Give Me Search Engine Optimization And I’ll Give You Targeted Sales Leads

    Targeted Sales Leads Are The Goal Of SEO
    Targeted Sales Leads Are The Goal Of SEO

    I talk with a lot of business owners and executives. One of the biggest problems I’ve been hearing is the dearth of targeted sales leads. There are, of course, plenty of books written on just this subject. Some will say, buying leads is the way to go. Others will say that success comes only through referrals. Lately we’re hearing about the Internet being a bountiful source of qualified leads.

    Targeted Sales Leads Are On The Internet

    The Internet is a big place. How do you go about finding sales leads on the Internet; or, rather, how do targeted leads go about finding you and your company? We’ve touched on this before: the Internet, in a sense, is an enormous library and search engines are its card catalogs. As we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet — when we want it — we respond less and less to offline media. How, then, can you be found by these eager buyers on the Internet?

    Do You Need Targeted Sales Leads?

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tactic the goal of which is to get more business and more customers. Filling your sale funnel with sales leads is a marketing strategy accomplished online by three tasks:

    1. Be found by search engines
    2. Be found on 1st search engine results page
    3. Maximize the number of website visitors

    What Are The Requirements For Targeted Sales Leads?

    Of course, nobody can know your business better than you. In order to attract targeted sales leads, we must understand the products and services you sell. Furthermore, your unique selling proposition allows prospects to see the difference between you and your competition. Who is your very best customer? Why do best customers stay with your company? We must identify your buyer personas before you can use the keywords that your best buyers actually use to search for you.

    SEO Benefits Targeted Sales Leads

    For many, that is a lot of work, especially all of this thinking about your business from your customer’s point of view. Why go to all this bother? Google recently remarked that every day four billion searches are conducted, one billion of which seek something local to buy. Done right, SEO benefits you in several ways:

    • Search engines respect your website and place it on the first search results page for specific keywords.
    • People searching for specific keywords will find your website on the first search results page.
    • Being found by more searchers, more visitors will visit your website.
    • More people visiting your website could translate into new business.
    • Organizing your website to better be found makes your website more interesting to visitors.
    • Organization of web pages and content to better be found makes your website more interesting to visitors.

    SEO Deliverables Result In Targeted Sales Leads

    Whether you do your SEO yourself or pay somebody to do it for you, you’re hoping for more customers, aren’t you? SEO sits on the marketing side of business and can deliver the following:

    • A defined service area by which to be found in local business results;
    • A manageable list of keywords and phrases for which great prospects are actually searching;
    • Distribution of keywords by web page, focus and intent;
    • Organization of web pages by intent, theme and relevance;
    • Every web page detailed by keywords, title, headers, descriptions and service area; and
    • Solid foundation and flexible design for ongoing and growing first page search engine exposure.

    Some SEO Expectations Are Targeted Sales Leads

    Although black hat wizardry may fool search engines quickly, the history of search engine algorithm changes indicates that these tactics are short lived tactics and not strategic. Following sound relationship marketing principles, your online properties will attract great customers and steadily build great new business over time. The time factor must not be underestimated and optimal progress may not be appreciated before three to six months. Some keywords are more competitive than others and will take longer to show first page search engine results. Competitors want first page search engine results, too, and some competition will slow your website progress.

    Targeted Sales Leads Are The Goal Of SEO

    Being found is not enough; nor is being found by a lot of people. Being found by enough of the right people is the only true success in marketing, regardless of medium. Success is more a function of converting great leads into great customers than it is in simply attracting large numbers of random visitors to your website. Targeted sales leads, then, are the ultimate goal of search engine optimization.

    Call Now
    Answer Questions: 612-235-6060

    Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060

  • How Local Small Business Marketing Creates Unlimited Opportunities To Be Found

    Local Small Business Marketing Solves Problems
    Local Small Business Marketing Solves Problems

    Local small business marketing sees every web page as another unique opportunity to be found. Traditionally, local small business advertising designed the home page like the dust jacket of a book and its table of contents. Usually any backlinks point directly to the home page, regardless what specific information the visitor was seeking. The only way to find and get to inner web pages is via the home page and elaborate menu navigations. Google and other search engines catalog web pages and their content. Every one of your web pages is an opportunity to be found for some specific content, keywords and phrases which introduce visitors to the rest of your website. Each blog post becomes another web page, another leaf on the tree that is your website. Blog software like WordPress facilitate categorization and tagging blog posts and phrases in your content which, in turn, provide additional opportunities for your content to be found and cataloged by search engines.

    Local Small Business Marketing Wants Great Customers

    Take a long close look at your very best customers. You know, those two or three customers who, if cloned ten times, would totally transform your business forever! If you had ten more of them you could simply fire the bottom ten customers, sleep better at night and you’d be ever so much more profitable at accounting time. Identify those factors in each of them that make them great customers. Imagine, if you will, one of your ideal buyers browsing the Internet looking for a solution to their problem which, unbeknownst to them is sitting right here in your hand. Their circumstances are far more than simply the keywords they type before clicking [Search]. Indeed, their circumstances include environment, education, age, family, ethnicity, geography, attitude, health and a host of other factors.

    Buyer Personae Love Local Small Business Marketing

    Why don’t you ask them why they bought from you? Why are they so loyal to you? Why do they keep coming back to you? What is your relationship all about? When you know your great customers so well that you immediately see them, or don’t see them, in a stranger you just met, then you have identified one of your buyer persona. Marketing ideas begin with the reality of your business.

    Aim High With Local Small Business Marketing

    If marketing is truly the relationship between your business and your marketplace, and every relationship begins with a single conversation, why would you ever intentionally go out of your way to start a conversation with somebody who does not fit your buyer persona? On the other hand, when you have an absolutely clear picture of your best customer in mind, if you meet a prospect identical to that best customer, what will you not do to convert them into another great customer? This isn’t so much a matter of scheming and plotting as it is an organizational principle. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many days in your life. Focus exclusively on those prospects most likely to become great customers. If you’re going to market anyway, aim high, aim at those that will benefit most from what you offer, from what you do best. So, when it comes to web pages, put yourself in your best prospect’s mind.

    Local Small Business Marketing Solves Problems

    What is it they most want to see? Paint them a picture of you and your company fully solving their problem. Tell them stories of how you have solved these problems for other people and how your customers benefit from your solutions. Everybody is an expert at something. When you go eyeball-to-eyeball with them across the sales table, you will tell them your most persuasive story. Put those stories in writing and publish them on your blog or web pages. Convert that to a video and syndicate it to Youtube and podcast it and publish it every way imaginable online. Seed the entire Internet with breadcrumbs, with stories specific to each persona’s needs … many will follow you and heed your call-to-action and convert from lead to prospect to great customer.

    Wasted Local Small Business Marketing Real Estate

    Small business marketing can’t waste web real estate. It’s not that you can’t create more. You cannot afford to confuse or mislead visitors. It wastes your time and theirs. Wasted web space is wasted effort that can produce nothing of value. If a web page does not have a specific purpose, if it is not intended for a specific buyer persona, it is more likely to turn away business.

    Call Now
    Answer Local Small Business Marketing Questions: 612-235-6060

    Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060

  • How To Get Great Customers With Online Marketing For Small Business And Search Engines

    Online Marketing For Small Business Creates Great Customers!
    Online Marketing For Small Business Creates Great Customers!

    OK, sure, if you’re big business like Wal Mart or Amazon the Internet is great. But, what do search engines have to do with online marketing for small business? In short, search engines are a tremendous opportunity to be found. How’s it working out for you in the Sunday newspaper classifieds? How many new customers found you in the yellow pages last month?

    Online Marketing For Small Business Works Locally

    Truth be told, right this minute, right here in the Twin Cities, eager buyers are searching for what you offer. Anticipate these eager buyers and you have the opportunity to stand up directly in front of each of them and tell them your great story. Once you identify the buyer personae of your greatest customers, what’s to stop you from stalking your perfect prospects? Isn’t creating great customers the best action you can take in growing your business? Is it possible to have too many great customers?

    Search Engines Help Online Marketing For Small Business

    Let’s look closely at typical search engine results to see what’s in it for you. For the sake of illustration, we’ll use Google. Sure, lately we’re seeing a lot of commercials about Bing, and certainly Facebook, too, has an impressive number of searches. Google recently reported four billion searches every day, one billion of which are seeking to buy locally. With two-thirds of all search engine searches, Google epitomizes the online search experience.

    Depending on your specific search phrase, the Google search results page may contain three different types of results:

    Paid Search And Online Marketing For Small Business

    Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may appear above all other results and/or down the right side. First and foremost, know that these are paid advertisements. Every time somebody clicks on one of these ads, whoever placed the ad pays Google. From the time you sign up to the time you start seeing results can be as quick as a few hours. Paid advertising can quickly pull prospects, test landing pages and gauge the market.

    Local Business Results And Online Marketing For Small Business

    Have you noticed the maps? Unless you’re totally oblivious to the Internet and online search, these last two years of online marketing for small business are remarkable because of the local business results.

    Google and the other search engines realize that there is an enormous demand for local and neighborhood search results. Why? Because eager buyers are shopping and ready to buy; but, they’re not prepared to put a new house in a shopping cart and purchase it from Amazon. For many items consumers still insist on buying from a person. They still put the relationship before the deal. And that is great news for local business.

    Getting on the map is not a function of paid advertising. Nor is it simply a matter of having a great website. Local business results feature businesses that are remarkable in their community. First, they claimed their listing in the local directories, such as Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, etc. Second, these businesses made the effort to standardize their listings everywhere, including using the same local telephone number and spelling consistently. Third, customers find them remarkable enough to leave online reviews, endorsements and testimonials for local business. The search engines are gathering many public reviews into the local business results.

    Organic Results And Online Marketing For Small Business

    Last but not least are the well known organic results. They are called organic because they are the “natural” ordering of all web pages cataloged across the Internet. Although, different search engines rank and order web pages differently, the notions of credibility and trust and back link references from other websites are shared. Clearly, if your business is found on the first page of Google results, eager buyers searching for what you offer may click on your link. Also, the more eager buyers find your link the more likely your business is to sell. Although, many say organic results are “free,” do not forget that consumer searches vary and the search engines change their rules to appeal to searchers.

    SEO And Online Marketing For Small Business

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of appealing to search engine algorithms in order to place high in their rankings. Effective online marketing for small business must consider SEO because each business must be found by buyers if they are to sell. Neither SEO nor marketing, however, is simply a matter of adding some ingredient to your website. If marketing is the relationship between a business and its marketplace, and every relationship begins with a single conversation, how many conversations with eager buyers do you want online?

    Online Marketing For Small Business Creates Great Customers!

    Is it possible to have too many great customers? Search engines are a tremendous opportunity to be found. Right this minute, right here in the Twin Cities, eager buyers are searching for what you offer. Is creating great customers your goal in online marketing for small business?

    Call Now
    Online Marketing For Small Business Answers: 612-235-6060

    Call MDS Resource For Special Offer Now: 612-235-6060

  • Give Me Local Small Business Marketing And I’ll Whip My Dreams Into Profitable Business Over Night

    Dream Local Small Business Marketing Profits
    Dream Local Small Business Marketing Profits

    If local small business marketing is unfamiliar to you, look at it this way. The target of every business is to get the word out to the maximum number of people to maximize marketplace exposure. In business, market exposure correlates with sales.

    Go Online With Local Small Business Marketing

    Today in our cyber era, having an effective online presence is of utmost importance. As people spend more and more time in front of the computer, chances are better and better that they will search online for the products and services that they will buy. The Internet allows small business owners to display your expertise directly to eager buyers. Unlike traditional media like billboards, television advertising and Yellow Pages, with online media local small business marketing no longer requires huge amounts of money.

    Local Small Business Marketing Is Affordable

    It’s true! There are some really cool ways to promote your local business, many of which are free, to attract the targeted leads you desire. Here are some of the methods:

    • Create web pages that feature keywords specific to your particular products and services. What do we mean by “keyword?” Anticipate what eager buyers type into the search engine box before they click [Search]. Savvy buyers are getting savvier. With local small business marketing you want to attract local customers.
    • Make sure to choose terms that people will look for to find local products and services. For example, if you own a Detroit furniture business, you don’t want to target phrase “furniture.” It’s too generic. Google it yourself and see 257 MILLION web pages containing that word. Instead, Detroit buyers will type the phrase “detroit office furniture” and search. Now I find 700 thousand competitive web pages and also that local map featuring local furniture merchants.
    • Build a blog and they will come. Your blog is the ideal way to tell your story and interact with an interested audience. You know? I know you’re great telling your story and persuading prospects sitting across the table from you. Write each blog post that way, as if you’re eyeball-to-eyeball with the largest possible audience. And they will hear your story today, tomorrow and next year — when they’re ready to hear it. Once you’re done writing your post, bookmark it in social book marking sites like Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com to promote even more traffic.
    • Last but not least, don’t forget a Facebook fan page. Now that Facebook is the third largest country in the world (China, India, Facebook, United States …) your Fan page facilitates keeping up with your customers regardless where they are. Local small business marketing benefits from Facebook patrons Like-ing your page and telling the world how great you are. Local patrons frequenting Facebook are more likely to pay attention to your local business when privy to your popularity. Additionally, Facebook facilitates instant communication with your audience whenever you do something noteworthy, like a special event or a special promotion.

    Dream Big With Local Small Business Marketing

    As local business marketing becomes easier and more familiar to you, eager buyers will notice. To maximize marketplace exposure your local business must be found. In business, market exposure correlates with sales. What do you have to lose by dreaming big and making local small business marketing an overnight sensation?

  • Are You Afraid Of Closing Targeted Sales Leads? Why Don’t You Have More Targeted Sales Leads?

    Do You Want More Targeted Sales Leads?
    Do You Want More Targeted Sales Leads?

    Targeted Sales Leads Are Eager Buyers

    Today the Internet is an excellent resource that you should use to facilitate operating any small and medium size business. As you know consumers have numerous choices when they are shopping online. Need proof? Go to Google.com, type “plumber” in the box and click Search. Right now, at the top of the results on my computer, Google tells me that there are 11,200,000 pages on the Internet about the word plumber.

    How do you expect eager buyers shopping for what you offer to find you, to contact you and to buy from you? Out of all those web pages, only one can be ranked number one. Only a small number of links can exist on that first search results page, including organic, paid and local business results.

    Effective online marketing results identify targeted sales leads and direct them to your website. Why do you care about the mother looking for Pampers if you’re selling cars? When you don’t know how this works it can end up costing a lot of money and time. How much can you afford?

    Continue reading for some tips about how to improve your return on advertising investment. When your sales funnel is full of targeted sales leads you’ll be working full time closing deals with buyers eager to do business with you.

    Targeted Sales Leads Cannot Be Bought

    Never buy sales leads. There is no way to guarantee that a sales leads list is fresh nor how interested they are in your products. Having bought something similar in the past is no gauge of current interest.

    The Internet has certainly changed the way we consume. One thing is certain: when we are eager and preparing to buy, the Internet provides us with a plethora of research information about what we seek to buy. Would you rather try to coax people to buy from you, or stand in front of those seeking to buy what you sell?

    Establish a schedule and know your place in the sales cycle. Especially if you’re a sole proprietor, time is of the essence. Wearing too many hats (e.g., marketer, salesman, manufacturer and accountant) is the surest way to get nothing profitable done.

    Therefore, set sales objectives and schedule time and resources to achieve them. Where are you most effective in your sales cycle? If you plan to search online daily to find potential sales leads, does it make sense that the chief executive does this? Perhaps, you ought to hire a part time worker to get this done.

    Search For Targeted Sales Leads

    Search for targeted sales leads in your niche market. Everybody is an authority in something. Isn’t that why you’re in the business you’re in? Your business sells a specific product or specific service. Identify the one or two key buyer personae for each product and service.

    Who are they? Why do they want your product? Why do they need your service? What is their specific problem? What do you offer that will benefit them?

    Once identified, anticipate where they are and how they will seek you out when they’re eager to buy. Be found there where they’re looking. Ask them to call you, come in your front door or request further information online. Just imagine how easy it will be for them to ask for your help. How easy will that be to earn your profit?

    Convert Targeted Sales Leads To Great Customers

    Think about purchasing a software application to keep track of your sales cycle. Think about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software as a dutiful assistant whose sole job is to prompt you every step of the way to converting targeted sales leads into satisfied customers. Once your online marketing is filling your sales funnel, you cannot afford to let any slippery leads get away.

    Yes, you have to research online to find your target market. CRM software can simplify and reduce this work. The key to getting a great start is know who are already your very best customers. Which of your customers, if you had ten more just like them, would seat you in the lap of luxury for the foreseeable future? Why don’t you have ten more just like that one? What are you afraid of?

    Don’t Fear Targeted Sales Leads

    Don’t be afraid to talk to you best customers. Ask them, Why did you buy from us? Why do you come back to us and buy more? Answers to these questions will put flesh on the bones of your buyer personae skeletons you sketched earlier. Once you understand who benefits most buying from you, anticipate where they are and where they will shop when they’re eager to buy.

    Be there. Be found. Prosper!

  • How Do You Keep Your Sales Funnel Full?

    How Full Is Your Sales Funnel?

    Inbound marketing is the surest and simplest means to filling your sales funnel.  Marketing local business online works precisely because it puts local business directly in front of eager buyers.  A full sales funnel keeps you busy — profitably busy.


    Thirty (30) years ago, we had to be told when a new widget or widget service was available.  We blithely went about our daily lives mostly unaware of great new things to come.  Inbound marketing wasn’t an option, because consumers had woefully less information easily available to them.

    Newspapers, billboards, commercials, telemarketers … they intruded into our lives, then we knew what was available for purchase.  We allowed these intrusions because, without them, we remained unaware how honest they had been with us.  Many companies took advantage of us in many ways, telling us no more than they wanted us to know.

    As we learn to search and find what we want on the Internet — when we want it — we respond less and less to offline media.  Tivo is popular, especially allowing us to skip those commercials.  Caller ID is ubiquitous, allowing us to skip those telemarketers interrupting dinner.  Have you checked out the Sunday Tribune Classifieds recently?  I see fewer billboards, and read fewer still.  When was the last time you flipped through the yellow pages?

    Somebody’s Sales Funnel Is Full

    Right this minute … Right here in the Twin Cities … Somebody is on the Internet searching for what you offer.  If they don’t find you, they will buy from somebody else.

    What will it take for you to be found everywhere they are looking for you?  Google reports that billions of people every month are filling sales funnels.  How many are in your sales funnel?

    Admit it.  You, too, tune out intrusive outbound marketing. You have at your fingertips the miracle of searching the Internet Universe for whatever you want, whenever you want it.  How do you shop?  Do you shop before you are ready to buy?  Neither do your customers.

    Like you, my 80 year old parents go to the Internet when they are curious.  They search the Internet to see if what they imagine is available for purchase.  When they find it — surprise! — they may also find that it is available for purchase scant miles away.  Have you seen the map?  The Local Business Results list local businesses immediately adjacent to that map, showing you exactly how to get to what you want to buy.

    How Full Do You Want Your Sales Funnel?

    What difference will it make in your life when new customers come to you and they ask to buy from your business?  When your best customers shop exactly as you shop, they will search for what you offer, go to one of the businesses listed next to that map in the Local Business Results and buy what they want from a local business.

    Would you rather cold call or be found?

    Inbound marketing is putting your business directly in the line of fire.  Learn your customers well, very well.  Anticipate what your best customers type into Google and Bing, and you can place a link to your web page on the Search Engine results page that they will read.  Marketing local business online requires you place your link right next to that map.  Go to where your best customers are looking for you and your best customers will ask to buy from you.

    What Are You Going To Do About Your Sales Funnel?

  • What is a Search Engine?

    Why does the Search Engine matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 4: What is a Search Engine?


    Search Engine Marketing Is Marketing Local Business Online

    Previously, we discussed What Is Inbound Marketing? quoting Seth Godin:

    “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”

    Marketing Local Business online demands a rigorous understanding of how best to be found when people search the Internet for what you offer.  To best understand HOW people search for what you offer, it is necessary to understand the tools they are using.  As I write this, Web Search Engines stand head-and-shoulders above other search tools; and Google dominates all Search Engines with more than 80% Search Engine marketshare.

    Before we can understand Search Engine Marketing (SEM,) we must have a working relationship with Search Engine mechanics.  Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is predicated on creating content that people want to find in a way that the Search Engines will notice and catalog and make readily findable by those hungry seekers.

    What is a Search Engine?

    A search engine is a tool used to find interesting information in a database.  In recent times, such search tools are computerized.  In its simplest form, the electronic card catalog at your public library is a search engine.

    Although search engine is a general class of computer programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Yahoo! and Bing that enable users to search online media, the World Wide Web and Usenet newsgroups.

    What is a Web Search Engine?

    A Web Search Engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web.  Web Search Engines work by storing information from billions of web pages, which they gather from the web page code.

    Web page contents are gathered by a Web crawler, or spider — an automated Web browser that reads every line of code in every web page, and follows every link on each page.  Contents of each page are analyzed to determine how to index it for later retrieval.  The index allows information to be found quickly.

    Three essential features of Search Engines are:

    • crawling,
    • indexing, and
    • searching.

    Search Engines evolved from Internet Directories

    • Archie [1990], “archive” without the “v,” was the first tool searching the Internet.  Archie downloaded directory listings, not contents, of all files located on public FTP sites.
    • Gopher [1991] combined document hierarchies with collections of services and gateways to other information systems.
    • W3Catalog [1993] was the first primitive Search Engine, periodically mirroring numerous specialized catalogues.
    • World Wide Web Wanderer [1993] was the first web robot and generated an index called ‘Wandex’.
    • Aliweb [1993] was manually notified by web site administrators of an index file at each site.
    • JumpStation [1993] used a web robot to find and index web pages, and used a web form interface as its query program.
    • WebCrawler [1994] allowed users to search for any word in any web page, which is now the Search Engine standard.
    • Lycos [1994] was one of the first Search Engines with a for-profit business model, followed closely by: Magellan, Excite, Infoseek, Inktomi, Northern Light and AltaVista.
    • Yahoo! [1994] founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University, started their guide as a way to track their personal interests on the Internet.
    • Google [1996] began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at Stanford working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP).  Google’s first funding was secured in August 1998 in the form of a $100,000 USD contribution given to a corporation which did not yet exist.
    • Microsoft [2004] began a transition to its own search technology, powered by its own web crawler (called msnbot).  Microsoft’s rebranded search engine, Bing, was launched on June 1, 2009.
    • On July 29, 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft finalized a deal in which Yahoo! Search would be powered by Microsoft Bing technology.

    How do Search Engines make money?

    In 1996, Netscape sought a single featured search engine for their innovative web browser.  Five Search Engines paid $5 million each to be in a rotation on the Netscape search engine page: Yahoo!, Magellan, Lycos, Infoseek, and Excite.  Today, most Search Engines are commercial ventures supported by advertising revenue.

    Some Search Engines allow advertisers to pay money to have their listings ranked higher in search results.

    Other Search Engines seek to categorize and prioritize web pages by measures of intrinsic value and make money by running search related ads alongside regular search engine results.  Such Search Engines make money every time someone clicks on one of these ads (Pay-Per-Click.)

    How do Search Engines differ from Directories?

    Historically, Yahoo! was among the most popular ways for people to find web pages of interest, but it operated on its web directory, contents of which were submitted by web site administrators.  Web directories are databases of human-compiled results, also known as human-powered search engines.

    Unlike web directories maintained by human editors, Search Engines operate on algorithms, or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.  Search Engines automatically create web page listings by using spiders that “crawl” web pages, index their information, and follow each page’s links to other web pages.

    Spiders return to previously crawled sites on a regular basis to update web page changes.  Everything that these spiders gather is entered into the Search Engine database.

    How do I use a Search Engine?

    Major Search Engines include a simple dialog box into which you type a word or phrase, and a Search submit button to begin the search.

    A Keyword is this word or phrase of words in this simplest sense.

    Most Search Engines support using Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to further refine search queries.  Boolean searching on the Internet may manifest in three ways:

    1. Full Boolean logic with the use of the logical operators (rare)
    2. Implied Boolean logic with keyword searching (typed symbols)
    3. Boolean logic using search form terminology (multiple form entries)

    When a user submits a query, the Search Engine compares it to its index and returns a listing of web page information, usually with a short summary containing page title and part of its content.  Some Search Engines support natural language queries that allow the user to type a question in the same form you would ask it of a human.

    What is a Search Engine Result Page?

    A Search Engine results page (SERP), is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.  The SERP typically lists web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page.

    SERP’s of the major Search Engines may include different types of listings: contextual, algorithmic or organic search listings, sponsored listings (PPC,) images, maps, definitions, videos and suggested search refinements.  Major Search Engines visually differentiate specific content types, such as images, news, blogs and sponsored links.

    Each SERP also includes navigation to subsequent and/or previous SERP’s, possible search suggestions or refinements, suggested similar searches, and back to begin a new search.

    How do Search Engines sequence results?

    Initially, web site administrators manually submitted their web site information to be included in Web directories, often for a fee.  Often as part of their business model, these “search engines” featured these sponsoring web sites according to the amount of fees collected.

    By 2000, the Google Search Engine was gaining popularity among searchers because it achieved more relevant results with an innovation called PageRank.  Google developed an algorithm to rank web pages based on the number, trust and authority of other web pages that link back to them.  Google’s premise is that good and desirable web pages are linked back to more than less desirable web pages.

    Now, major Search Engines operate similarly.

    How each Search Engine decides which pages match best and in what order varies widely from one engine to another.  The methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.

    What is an algorithm?

    An ‘algorithm’ is an effective method for solving a problem expressed as a finite sequence of instructions.  Each algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task.  In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an item with specified properties among a collection of items.

    There are also many algorithms designed specifically for retrieval in very large databases, such as bank account records, electronic documents, product catalogs, fingerprint and image databases, and so on.

    Each Search Engine uses a proprietary algorithm to index and return only meaningful results for each search query.  The index is built from the information stored with the data and the method by which the information is indexed.

    While millions of web pages may include a particular keyword, some pages are more relevant, popular, and authoritative than others.  Search Engine usefulness depends on the relevance of the results it returns on each search query.

    Who are Search Engine customers?

    Major Search Engine business models are for-profit.

    Each SERP has a clearly defined topic and targeted theme.  Money comes from paid advertisements strategically placed on each SERP.  Each ad includes a Web link to the advertiser’s web page.  Advertisers pay for these ads to attract people searching for particular keywords.

    No search engine has control over the content of the universe of web pages.  The better a Search Engine responds to each search, the more money that Search Engine is likely to make.

    These Web searchers are becoming more sophisticated everyday.  Everyday, more and more people search the Internet to find and buy more and more.

    It stands to reason that Search Engines will continuously hone their search algorithms to continuously improve profitability.

    What is a Search Engine?  Perhaps, it is the key to your Local Business prosperity …

    It’s no longer enough to sit back and wait for new customers to come to your Local Business.  Fact is, in these times, your customers are more sophisticated than ever.  Barraged with thousands of Buy-Me messages everyday, they are determined to find for themselves true value.  They are not waiting around for your message; but, they are seeking what they want to buy on the Internet.

    Therefore, Marketing Local Business online is your new imperative.  Now that you understand Search Engines, how they work and who uses them for what, it is time for you to seize the day.  Use the Search Engines to market your Local Business.  Put yourself in front of your customers.  Take the initiative.


    Be found!

    Eager customers are looking for you in the Search Engine …

  • What is Inbound Marketing?

    Why does Inbound Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 3: What is Inbound Marketing?


    Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing

    Previously, we discussed What Is Internet Marketing? itself:


    “… a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.  Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.”

    How have new customers found you in recent months?

    Today, people find out about your Local Business in two main ways:

    • Passing Word-of-Mouth recommendations, or
    • Finding you on a search engine results page

    Word-of-Mouth depends on the good will of existing customers.  How would you like people publishing Word-of-Mouth recommendations online?  Why not spend zero dollars marketing your Local Business?

    What is Outbound Marketing?

    In traditional outbound marketing companies focus on finding customers through:

    • Building brand awareness,
    • Advertising, and
    • Promotion

    Outbound Marketing includes:

    • Focus on your product / service (advertising & promotions),
    • Focus on your transaction (sales),
    • Focus on your business (public & media relations),
    • Focus on your post-sales support (customer service), and
    • Focus on your customer after-the-fact (customer satisfaction)

    Everyday, a typical consumer is overwhelmed with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions!

    They have become quite creative in blocking these interruptions, including:

    • Caller id,
    • Spam filtering,
    • Tivo, and
    • Satellite radio

    Customers need to find a very good reason to visit your Local Business.

    Marketing Local Business online is quite a challenge!

    What is Permission Marketing?

    Alternatives to intrusive and increasingly ineffective outbound marketing are based on what Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing:

    “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them …”

    “It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

    For the business to engage the prospect, the prospective customer must grant either:

    • Explicit Permission (e.g., request email or catalog), or
    • Implicit Permission (e.g., follow a search engine result link)

    Furthermore, Godin says:

    “In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, ‘I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by listening.’ And then, this is the hard part, that’s all you do. You don’t assume you can do more.”

    What is Inbound Marketing?

    Google reports more than 1 Billion searches each month for local products and local services.

    Fully qualified prospects are already looking for products and services in your industry.  Inbound Marketing is when customers call you to:

    • Make appointments,
    • Purchase products, or
    • Gain information

    When customers find you and like you, you can get business from them, from their friends and from their family.

    “Home delivery is the milkman’s revenge… it’s the essence of permission,”

    Godin says.

    Online Marketing is starting to make more sense …

    What comprises Inbound Marketing?


    Rick Burnes     suggested an intertwined relationship between three main components of Inbound Marketing:

    Hubspot: Inbound Marketing

    1. Inbound Marketing Content

      • Content is the substance of Inbound Marketing.
      • Content is the information that attracts prospects to your Local Business.
      • Content includes the Call To Action that converts prospects into customers.

    2. Inbound Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

      • If people don’t know you exist, how are you going to do business?
      • SEO makes it possible for potential customers to find your content.

      3. Marketing Local Business online must include both Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and SEO if you want your Local Business found.

    3. Inbound Marketing Social Media

      • Social Media amplifies the impact of your content.
      • Widely distributed content will be discussed.
      • Socialized content taken seriously becomes authentic.
      • There is more trust when a person has a choice.

    Social Media have two sides:

    • What you say about your business
    • What others say about your business

    Why Inbound Marketing?

    1. Inbound Marketing has high Value

      • Cost less than buying ads, PPC, mailing lists, print, etc.
      • Blogs and Twitter accounts are free to start
      • Higher Return on Investment (ROI)

    2. Inbound Marketing is Effective

      • Targeting specific markets is easier
      • Prospects qualify themselves
      • Pre-sold customers search, find you and ask to buy

    3. Inbound Marketing has great Timing

      • Prospects search for you
      • Searching prospects are considering a purchase now
      • Prospects considering a purchase are more receptive to your message

    Godin remarks,

    “One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you.”

    What are Prerequisites to Inbound Marketing?

    You need to do your homework and fully understand those looking to buy what your Local Business offers.

    Your Market analysis includes:

    • What groups of customers exist? (markets)
    • Which customer groups do you prefer to serve? (target markets)
    • What do they need?
    • How do their needs change? (market trends)
    • How do they use these products and services?
    • What price are they willing to pay?
    • How do they want to receive what they buy? (distribution)
    • What do you offer that meets those needs?
    • Who are your competitors?
    • What are your competitors doing about your target market?

    Exactly how are your customers searching for what you offer?  It’s not enough to know how you describe your offering.  What matters most are the exact words prospects use to search for it.

    Simply make it easy for potential customers to find your Local Business.

    “The Internet means you can treat different people differently, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format,”

    instructs Godin.

    How is Inbound Marketing Done?

    Setup your web site to attract visitors naturally through:

    • Search Engines,
    • the Blogosphere, and
    • Social Media sites

    Don’t forget your Call To Action to convert visitors once they arrive on your web page!

    The Inbound Marketing process is straightforward:

    • You provide content of interest to people wanting to learn or know something.
    • You share similar content from other people who do the same.
    • Interested readers come to see you as an authority in your field.
    • When somebody considers a purchase related to your expertise, they will come to you.

    Inbound Marketing is like Word-of-Mouth with people passing recommendations online.

    Seth Godin sums it up like this:

    “Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.”

    Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing

  • What Is Internet Marketing?

    Why does Internet Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 2: What is Internet Marketing?


    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing

    Previously, we discussed What Is Marketing? itself:


    “Marketing is a system the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the marketplace.”

    Marketing, then, is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.  The Marketing concept becomes a philosophy.  It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all Business activities.  It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.

    Let’s look not only at identifying customer needs, but also to satisfying them and anticipating them in the future.  The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price …

    In that same spirit, Internet Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Internet Media, such as Search Engines and Web Pages.

    Furthermore, Online Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Online Media, including Email, Mobile Phones and Internet.

    As you recall, a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.

    Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.

    Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects — the only difference between these relationships and other Marketing processes is the Medium!

    What, then, is the Opportunity and the Potential offered by this unique Marketing Medium?  Let’s compare and contrast:

    • If a Medium has a continuously shrinking Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches zero.
    • If a Medium has a continuously growing Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches infinity.

    This, then, is the crux of everything we have to discuss in this and subsequent conversations.

    • If you want to grow your Local Business, you must participate in the largest and fastest growing Markets for what you offer.
    • If Business is not communicating with a continuously growing Market there can be no relationship with that Market and little or no Business comes from that Market.

    What Relationships do you want with your Market?

    Over 1 Billion Local Searches are performed every month on the Internet …

    … if your Customers do not find you, from whom will they buy ???

    The Internet is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the known Universe.  Ecommerce and multinational companies have created extraordinary fortunes based solely on Internet Marketing.  Local Internet Marketing for small Business is quite a different animal, as we will discuss in subsequent conversations.

    To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business.  Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!

    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing