The internet gives today’s consumers much more power than they had 20 years ago. Today, I can easily compare the selling price of TV in California with the same one selling in North Dakota. The problem this causes for sellers is that they have to put as much emphasis on added value as they do on price.

Low prices are simply not enough anymore. Sure, it will get you listed at the top of an ascending search for having the lowest price, but that is just the starting point. Are you expecting all your clients to buy on pricing alone? What if your price isn’t the lowest in the world? Remember, this is the World Wide Web we are dealing with here. Users can research retail information from around the globe.

You have to do more today than just deliver a low price. Don’t get me wrong, price is a great starting point…but do you want to build your business around first-time and one-time shoppers?  Or, do you want to do business with shoppers that come back to the same place because they feel like they get more from their purchases than just a low price?

That brings us to added value.

Adding value to your services and products isn’t that hard, yet it seems to be often ignored online. Sellers focus solely on volume. This mentality works at first with the initial rush, but eventually starts to fade and leaves the sellers scrambling to figure out what to do when their service flaws and “gotchas” are posted and discussed all over the internet. More and more online sellers have had to re-invent themselves after their initial rush. How do they do this? Well, for starters, they basically get back in touch with their customers. If they had built this idea into their business plan this to start with, they would have had far less growing pains.

Make sure your sites showcase the “extras” they get from you rather than simply buying from the place with the lowest price. Show your customers information about the little things that make you stand out from the rest. Showcase your values and appeal to their sensitive side if need be. As an example, here in Michigan we are hearing more and more about buying local. It’s no secret that the recession has hit Michigan exceptionally hard. People that live and work here seem to be pushing the “Made in Michigan” phrase…and for people with roots here it really means something. If you are employing Michigan workers, and providing products or services based here, then showcase that. You might be surprised at the advantage that gives you over the national sites and sellers.

Probably the best way to add value and character is to get involved with your customers. There are plenty of areas on the internet where people can go to complain and discuss things about almost any vendor or product. The most successful vendors pay attention to these conversations and engage directly in this dialogue. They have members, teams, and even entire departments devoted to direct contact on the internet. They don’t suppress the negative conversations either. They simply show their work where ever possible on how they resolve those problems that arise. In essence they are bringing back that old fashioned customer service but in the internet age for everyone to see.

I feel that it is becoming more and more important for online sellers to interact directly with their customers whenever possible. Just because you’re an e-tailer doesn’t mean you don’t have to interact with actual human beings anymore. You can be assured that your customers are out there somewhere and they are talking about you. Every online seller should offer a public forum for their customers to post comments in. It can be a product specific review forum, like Newegg for example. Or, perhaps a third party satisfaction forum like the one used by Zappos and their ‘GetSatisfaction forum’.

Some other very useful places online where people are looking for information on your business include Google’s seller rating and review system and ResellerRatings.com. Engage your customers. Do some searches on your own and find out where the complainers are hanging out. Listen to what they are ranting and raving about. Don’t be afraid to put your official name out there and interact with them. You will show your buyers who are out there doing their homework that you care. Trust me, your potential customers doing their homework LOVE to see resolved complaints of other users.

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Consumers are now looking to have the work done by researching online, reading other customer’s reviews, and gathering as many facts as possible BEFORE any contact is made with the business. As potential buyers, today’s shoppers first leverage the power of the internet in their shopping experience. They don’t want to be contacted until they are ready to be. A shopper empowered with search engines is able to gather vast amounts of extremely precise decision-making data before even thinking about contacting a seller.

One of the last things today’s internet users want to do is visit a nice looking site and have to hand over precious information about their identity so that a seller can contact them to “make the sale”. Websites should be able to basically make the sale already. Then the seller just has to close the deal!

With identity theft and fraud on the rise, website users are becoming more and more cautious of even handing over their name and phone number unless they are already 99% sure they want the products/services of a company.

Personally, I find the best sites to be ones that present information on exactly what I am looking for (rather obvious!). But what is that information? If I want to shop for a moving company there are 4 main things I am going to look for while doing my pre-contact research.

• I am going to look for reviews/consumer reports and other information from real people that have used the service. I want to see the good AND BAD reviews. Not many companies have 100% customer satisfaction if they do a substantial amount of business. There are bound to be complaints and resolutions needed. If I see 100% positive posts from “customers” then I am immediately suspicious of who is posting/editing this information. I would rather see “the company broke my favorite lamp!” and afterwards a response/resolution from the customer or the company saying “but they handled it extremely well and replaced it without question!” This goes along directly with the mantra “no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes”.
• Secondly, I want to see some pricing information. I don’t need exacts, but I need to see some estimates. Following the example of moving company, if I want to move a 2-bedroom apartment from Grand Rapids to Traverse City, I want to get an idea of the pricing the company offers before I commit to providing them with a way to contact me. Give us educated shoppers (always assume we have seen your competitors sites!) some type of pricing to add to our research.
• Third is warranty information and value added services that I expect from the company. I don’t necessarily want the CHEAPEST movers, and if your company is not the cheapest then tell me why I should allow you to contact me and what the values are in your services compared to your competitors.
• Lastly, show me pretty pictures of what I am getting/what you offer. Believe it or not there are plenty of internet users out there who simply don’t like to read much… just ask my mother J Show users detail images of what you offer and what you do! Pictures still are worth a thousand words. That has not changed, yet.

I think these 3 main areas are paramount to marketing to today’s SMART internet users. If the company is lucky enough to make it through my initial round of research, then they will be getting a call/email/contact information from me one way or another so they can close the deal. If they get this information then chances are they are very close to winning my business.

Nick Kuzmin

Lead Support Technician for Mindscape at Hanon Mckendry

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I am sure this is a question you, and everyone else on the planet, has been faced with at one time or the other while wading into the social media-sphere.

I know it was definitely a hot question for me in the beginning days.

The famous line, “Build it and they will come,” from the movie Field of Dreams is just that …. a dream! It’s also NOT something that will happen within social media unless you are some HUGE celebrity and have an extreme amount of luck.

There are a few things you can do though to increase your chances of gaining a strong fan and follower base on both Twitter and Facebook. The following are four things to focus on to help increase your chances of successfully building a strong social media following.

1. Be Interesting

I know this sounds simple but think about it. How likely are you to follow some boring, stiff, corporate entity online? I know I wouldn’t!

The days of stale old boring copy telling your company history or announcing the latest product or sale just isn’t cutting it. Social media is just that … social. If you think about the times you’ve found yourself at a networking event and got cornered by some guy that was blathering on and on with all his “corporate speak,” I am sure you couldn’t wait to escape from his clutches. If you handle your social media content on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn the same way, you’ll have your visitors running away as fast as they arrive.

The Internet is not one dimensional and neither should the content you put out there on the social media sites. Provide content your visitors want to consume and stuff that is just plain interesting. If you do this you’ll find your fan base and followers grow.

2. Offer Value

Papa John’s Pizza did an excellent job of this early on in the Fan Page game. They offered a free pizza to people who joined their fan page. I just checked the amount of followers they have and the number is nearing 800,000!

I understand that not all companies have a product to offer that is as compelling as a delicious pizza, but that’s ok. Find something of value to offer in exchange for people joining up for your Facebook Fan Page. Maybe it’s a report, an eBook, or a discount at your retail store. Be creative and follow rule number one …. make it interesting.

3. Have a Strategy and Tactical Plan

Simply getting a presence on the most popular social media sites isn’t enough. It’s important to take the time to create a strategy and a tactical plan which will help you accomplish your objective of building your Fan or Follower base. If you are going to actively participate on Twitter, for example, make sure you are not only providing links to your website, but also include links to content which proves your expertise to potential customers.

The Internet is an excellent tool for consumers to choose a competent service provider and the old rules are now out the window. Nobody needs to simply take your word for it. Make sure you craft a strategy that helps showcase your VALUE, and don’t be the old school salesperson who simply tries to cram the latest offer down your throat.

4. Be Consistent

You need to realized that social media is a commitment, and something you need to take seriously. Whether you know it or not people are viewing the content you are putting on the social media sites and even if they aren’t commenting, they are enjoying it and in some cases becoming dependent on that information. The worse thing you can do is let them down, and not put out content on a regular basis.

These are four simple things to pay attention to when participating in social media. You’ll soon find that the more you participate with a focus on helping other people and providing valuable content, the faster your Twitter followers and Facebook fan base will grow. I’ve noticed almost each time I put out a new “tweet” with good, solid content … I’ll gain a new handful of followers.

If you have anything you’ve found that works great for you … please share by leaving a comment below.

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Amen!

IE6 was released in August of 2001!  Yet people still use it today, not taking advantage of the latest technology.  Could you imagine in 2001 using a browser from 1992.  No, you wouldn’t because the experience would be so much different (Mosaic was starting development in December of 1992!)

Ok, why do I care about this?  Because I think this is an important step to killing off IE6.  We now have a bigger reference to support our case for clients to upgrade.  Before this, honestly, the fact the manufacturer themselves were no longer supporting the application was not a good enough reason to upgrade.  But as popular and important tools become unavailable to IE6 users, it will force them to get current.

I love it.

Thank you Google,
Paul

Here’s the message:

———————–

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

———————–

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It’s no secret the last year has been very difficult for people personally and professionally.  The good thing, however, is that the economy is looking up and the downturn has produced a lot of opportunity.

But here’s the question: How can I stay motivated when things are hard?

For me, motivation is assisted mostly from attitude.  Keeping an upbeat attitude is key even when you feel like you’re getting kicked in the gut over and over again.

What else is a big motivator?  Money. You need it to survive, and you really need it for your business to survive.  So here’s a quick way to think positive and get motivated.

Start by thinking about how much money you NEED to make to pay your bills and be happy per year (that’s X).  Something very realistic.

Once you know what you need, define how much money, on average, you earn (PROFIT – that goes to your paycheck) per sale of your product or service (that’s Y).

 There are lots of other variables here, but that’s not really the point. Just looking for a number that’s close.

Then, do the math.

X/Y=Z  (Z is the number of sales you need per year.)

After defining your target market/audience, find out exactly how many businesses out there match (if you don’t have this, you can get it from the Chamber of Commerce, trade associations, etc).

Ok, enough of the boring stuff.  Here’s the motivating stuff…

So let’s say for the sake of argument (and math) there are 5,000 businesses that could potentially buy from you.  And let’s say on average you earn $400/sale.  And let’s say you need to make $100,000 to be happy and make it worth while.  You’d need to make 250 sales throughout the year to hit your goal.

Out of 5,000 businesses, you need to capture 5% of the market. 

To make this happen, you’re going to need to make 1 sale out of every 20 businesses.

But here’s where the attitude thing comes into play.  That means 19 out of 20 can tell you NO and you’re still going to hit your goal!  When they say no, don’t take it as a negative.  Thank them for their time and know you’re one call, email, appointment closer to getting that one you need.

Few people like to make cold calls because of the fear of being rejected.  It’s the fear of someone saying NO.  But with the right attitude and understanding of what your overall goals are, you can turn that NO into something very positive.

Another way to think of it.  If your sale is worth $400 and you average 1 sale out of every 20 businesses, you can divide the sale up between the 20 businesses and value each contact at $20.  So when they say no, it doesn’t get you down because you know you just earned $20 as you get closer to the next yes.

Hope this helps!
Paul Ferrier

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You should employ this same strategy when you are looking to build traffic to your website.

The most effective way to do it is to expand your digital footprint by increasing the amount of content that links back to your website from other websites.

You can accomplish this several ways which include:

• Online news releases
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Forum posts
• Link exchanges
• Etc.

The most important requirements to each of these link building platforms is providing relevant content which compels the visitor to click the link and, when they do, you deliver them content which covers the topic referred to in the link.

Blogging is an excellent way to do this because you will be creating large amounts of content which you’ll be sharing with your visitors.  This content can go a long way to position yourself and your company as the expert on the topic which you are writing about, and it quickly builds credibility for you.  The more valuable the content, the more the visitor will like you and the more likely they’ll be to visit your website.

It’s also very important to know the language your visitors speak and write your blog posts in that language. You need to avoid using a bunch of industry jargon and gobbledy gook which will only confuse your visitors and provide a bad experience.  The other reason this is important is because if you write the posts in your visitors language you will be much more likely to match when they are typing their question into a search engine.

If you’ve never written a blog post before, it may be a bit uncomfortable at first, but I can assure you it is well worth your time and effort.  Once you’ve done it for awhile it will become much easier and, if you are like me, you may find that you like it a lot!

I would encourage you to take the time to visit http://www.technorati.com which is one of the largest blog search engines around.  Do some searches using keywords which are relevant to your industry and identify some blogs you can spend time reviewing before you begin creating your own posts.

While you are reviewing them, focus on the writing style and take note of which type of posts receive the most comments. The most important thing to pay attention to is the content of those comments.  You will quickly identify the most passionate topics amongst their audiences and you can begin to compile a list of blog posts t0 start on once you are ready.

It will take time for your content to build up, but I can assure you every time you add another word to your blog you will, in essence, be throwing yet another line in the water increasing the chances you’ll catch that big fish.

I’ll be writing a series of additional posts on blogging in the coming days.  If you have a topic or question you’d like me to cover, just leave a comment below.  If you’d like to be notified each time a new post is added, either add your email address in the box on the right or click the RSS icon to have it delivered to your RSS reader.

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Marketers beware…these “opportunities” from these “Internet marketing specialists” may not be as good as they sound.

Here’s a real world example that just prompted this blog post.

I received an email from one of these “Internet marketing specialists”.  Obviously he does his research since we’re an SEO firm (that’s sarcastic).

Here’s the opening line:

——————————-

“Hello, my name is [removed] and I am an internet marketing specialist. I was looking at websites under the keyword 4 wheeler parts and came across your website http://www.polarispartshouse.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a makeup search. Knowing your websites rankings as well as your competitions rankings is crucial for your online success.”

——————————-

It goes on to tell me more about his service and his promises. Impressive, right?

To someone who doesn’t understand SEO, this might sound very appealing.  If you sell Polaris parts, why wouldn’t you want to get traffic for 4 wheeler parts? After all, you DO sell 4 wheeler parts.

Here’s why.

What are we selling?

• 4 wheeler parts – yes, sometimes.
• Polaris parts – yes, ALL THE TIME.

So where would you want your focus to be? 4 wheeler parts…or Polaris parts?

The search phrase “4 wheeler parts” does not qualify the traffic.  Simply stated, there are a lot of manufacturers out there that sell 4 wheeler parts like Honda, Yamaha, Arctic Cat, Can-Am, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and, of course, Polaris.  Among many others.

So if someone is looking for 4 wheeler parts, they need parts that fit their specific make and model.  They don’t want to land on PolarisPartsHouse.com if they are looking for Yamaha parts!  So the effort is wasted and no sales are going to happen anyways.

So what we do choose to focus on is higher quality traffic.  Would “Polaris parts” be a good search phase?  If someone types “Polaris parts” into the search engines, what are they looking for?  Polaris parts.  And would it make good sense for them to find PolarisPartsHouse.com, where all Polaris parts are sold?  Heck yeah!  (And where do you see PolarisPartsHouse.com for Polaris Parts on Google?)

A few more reasons why this offer is a joke.  The search phrase “4 wheeler parts” is searched for 12,100 times in October according to Google.  The search phrase “Polaris parts” was searched for 673,000 times. But if he knew the target market, he’d know they don’t search for “4 wheeler parts”, they search “atv parts”.

I’m writing this post to educate companies who might jump at the original offer.  When I visited their website, there was no address, just a phone number, an email, a testimonial and a way to pay for their services.  Come on!  Do not do business with companies like this.  Choose a local company that you can talk to and hold accountable or a company that you’re referred to because someone else has used them with success.  Guess what…the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.” even applies to SEO. 

I hope this helps!
Paul

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Believe it or not I am still fired up over the “hacks” that swindle business owners out of their money for services they are less than qualified to provide.  I am quite sure I’ll continue to be irritated because this type of junk will never stop.

Rather than go off on another tangent, I want to provide some value and equip you with a step-by-step process I promised to post if enough of you asked for it.

Well, I received several requests and although it’s been awhile … here you go!

Step One – Build a List of Keywords Focused on Benefits Your Visitors Want

Your customers don’t care about you, your company, or how cool your products and services are.  The only thing they care about is what’s in it for them.

Does your website currently talk about the benefits they’ll receive from doing business with you?  If it does, are you speaking the language they speak?

I’m not talking about English vs. Spanish when I ask  if you are speaking the same language your customers speak.   I am referring to the heavy use of industry jargon which we so often end up using with our clients.

I’m here to tell you they don’t understand industry jargon, so don’t use it.

Ask yourself what you would type in if you were your customer looking for a solution, and then take whatever time is necessary to think like them and compile a list of keywords as they would type them into the search box.

Step Two – Check and See How Often Your Keywords are Searched For Each Month

The beauty of the Internet is that everything is measurable, including the amount of times someone searches using the keywords you selected.

For example, we were working with an organization who was fairly proud of the high rank they were receiving for a particular keyword.  We did some research and found they were indeed ranking number 3 on Google for that keyword.

We did a little more digging and found that although they ranked well …

that particular keyword was only searched for 72 times each month (on average).

We also found out they ranked 18 on Google for the plural version of that same keyword, and the plural version of the keyword was searched for over 12,000 times each month.

It’s amazing how one “s” can make such a significant difference.  The great thing is you have access to the same information and it won’t cost you anything!

Just go to the Google Keyword Tool at:  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal .

Below is a quick screen capture video of what to do once you’ve arrived, and a quick explanation of what the data means that you’ll be looking at.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFePl6FZfAA]

Step Three – Determine Whether Your Customers Intend to Buy When Using Those Words

Just because you find your keywords are searched for frequently each month doesn’t mean they are the right words.  You have the ability to determine the percentage of the time people searching with these words, intend to make a purchase.

We’ve never believed in optimizing a website simply for the sake of driving traffic.  In my opinion it doesn’t matter how much traffic you receive if nobody is looking to take the next step.

Well, you also have access to this information as well … and it is completely free!

Just go to the MSN Commercial Intention Tool at:  http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/ .

I planned on producing a video on how to use this but unfortunately the Ad Lab website has been down for the past couple days.  It is very easy though and I am sure you won’t have any difficulty once it is back up.

Conclusion

If you take the time to think like your customers, understand how often your customers are searching for the solution you provide,  recognize when your customers are looking to make a buying decision, and ultimately use this intelligence to guide your marketing direction …

You will win!

I hope you find this information useful and I encourage you to ask the next “Internet Marketing Professional” what their process is.

If their process doesn’t include all of the following …

Grab your wallet (or purse) and RUN!!!!

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Let’s face it.  You love your company.  With the logo being your staple, why wouldn’t it be BIG on your website?

The answer actually has two parts:  Your logo doesn’t sell and visitors really don’t care.

Now, let me explain.

But when was the last time you went to a website and bought something just because you liked the logo?  I’d bet you actually bought the product or service because…it was what you were looking for.

In the most simplistic sense, your logo is on your website to identify your company.  But your logo doesn’t sell.  Your logo confirms to the user that, “Yup, this is the company I was looking for.” or “Yup, this company looks professional.”

People visit your website for your content, whether it’s information marketing, explaining the services you have to offer, or products you would like them to purchase.  They really don’t care about your logo.  Your major calls to action should take visual priority over your logo.

But please, for the success of our website, don’t let your logo scream for attention.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Paul

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And I read it, of course.  So I’ll save you some time and give you a simple overview on what they learned, and what I learned from them.

• First, I had to get back to my Trigonometry and Calculus classes to get my head around all the equations they have in the document to define their findings.  Very interesting.  Very amazing.  Very intelligent.  And I am not pretending to really understand what all of it was.  Ha.
• Second, the paper is a working paper, so a bit of duplicate content to get through.  Unless they were just trying to really drive the point home. 
• Third, I found it odd that a paper from 2009 would use data mined in 2004.  Sure seems like behaviors could change over this 4+ year span.

Ok, so this is what I gained from it:

Of course, the answer is YES, friends do influence the purchase of other friends in social networks. Big surprise, right?

Well, here’s where I think it gets interesting.  There are 3 levels of influence:

1. Good.
2. Indifferent.
3. Bad.

The paper breaks these users out like this (out of 208 users):

• Good – 40% bought products based on their social network.  So from a revenue standpoint, there was an increase of revenue produced by this group.  They call it “Keeping up with the Jones.”  Which we are all familiar with. This group interacts often with other users in the social network, but are not seen as the leaders.  These are the followers, naturally.
• Indifferent – 48% were actually unaffected by their social network.  This is also the group that interacts with other users the least.  So just like real life, people who don’t talk to people would naturally be unaffected by…other people.  Weird coincidence.
• Bad – I loved this one and where I think the most new knowledge is gained.  These users are the highest level users with the most respect/followers. This group, 12%, have their purchase behavior negatively impacted by their social network.  Meaning if their neighbor bought it, they didn’t.  Weird, right?  Not really.  This group is looking to differentiate themselves from everyone else by being the leader, not by being one of them.  If they buy the same thing, they are a follower.  So super users don’t want something average…they buy a Mercedes vs a Chevy.  Or a Mac vs a PC (sorry, had to throw that in there).  They want to be the first to have something, not go along with everyone else.

So, knowing this, I conclude that in order to connect with super users in the social network like Mindscape at Hanon McKendry recommends clients do, this reaffirms what we’ve also been telling clients:  what’s being offered MUST be unique and more “first to market” to truly grab their attention.  If others have it or others are talking about it, it’s of little interest to them.  And this is the group you want to get in with.  Because if they do it, it has an effect on 40% of their network.

What are your thoughts?  Let me know.

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