What’s Your Excuse?

One of the most common complaints (excuses?) given for not engaging in online marketing and social media is that there are simply too many options and, to put it simply, business owners are afraid to pick one and go with it. They don’t always come out and say that – we don’t usually like admitting we’re overwhelmed and scared – but that’s the heart of it.

You might have said it yourself, maybe a line like one of these:

I’m too busy to figure this online thing out.

There are too many options and I don’t want to invest in the wrong one.

I’m too old for this stuff.

It’s too complicated.

There’s no way to measure ROI.

I’m just going to focus on offline marketing for now.

Maybe next year, when things calm down…

Any of those sound familiar?

The Great Big Secret of Online Success

Well, if any of those ring a bell, this post is for you. We’re here with the one secret you need for online success. Are you ready?

Do something.

Yes, that’s it. Really. Sorry, we know, it’s kind of disappointing that it’s so simple. But the secret is simple; doing nothing will get you nowhere. Pick one online option and go for it. Really put some effort into it, whether it’s your business website or a business blog or a Facebook page. Work at it for 15 to 30 minutes daily and you will see an enormous impact. And while you’re working at it – even just for 15 minutes at a time – you’ll learn everything you need to know. You’ll see that in the online world, just like the offline world, truly successful marketing is about connecting with people. Social media, blogs, and websites are just new ways to connect, and for many local businesses, they are less expensive and easier to manage.

You just have to put your fears aside, jump in, and take action.

Remember, the longer you hesitate, the more time you waste. Get your feet wet. Take a step. Take another step. Start moving forward. Making progress is not as difficult as you think; you just have to pick a direction and start moving forward.

Ready? Let’s go.

Photo credit: andreskrey

Andy and I work with several media outlets – both traditional and new media outlets – to help them “do it better.”

There’s a lot that media can do “better” these days. Here are few ideas that come to mind immediately:

1. Connect & engage with consumers/readers/viewers/listeners better.

2. Provide better value to advertisers.

3. Distribute information better.

4. Build better communities.

5. Give better PR.

That’s right. There’s a lot that media outlets can do to make the event of giving PR – or media coverage, press mentions, etc. – better. Better for whom? Everyone. For the media outlet itself, for the business or person getting the coverage (assuming it’s positive) and for the consumer.

Now, keep in mind, I’m framing this in terms of what you, my readers, care about – and that’s getting or receiving coverage for your small, locally owned business. There are a million caveats to this situation, but for now, let’s focus on the “what if” of a media outlet giving a small business or local business owner some positive coverage of some sort.

One easy way that media can give better PR is to simply include the URL of the small business’ web site into the coverage.

For example, I was just reading a local magazine that had lots of fashion shots where models were dressed in clothing from many boutique shops around town. The brand of the clothing was mentioned and the name of the boutique was mentioned – the place where the model was posing was even mentioned. That leaves THREE opportunities to include three different business URLs in the caption as well. Why would including the URLs into this coverage have made better PR?

1. It would keep me, as a reader/listener/viewer from getting frustrated that I saw something I liked and then didn’t know where to go find it.

2. It would make the media outlet look thorough in its reporting (it is 2010 afterall).

3. It would make the small business owner very happy and even more likely to share the coverage with their network of customers and prospects (which leads to better circulation for your publication).

I think all of those boil down to the consumer having a better feeling towards the media. And when consumers love the media – advertisers love the media. It’s what’s good for the media outlet: to give better PR.

How can you give better PR while maintaining journalistic integrity? There are lots more that come to mind for me – what about you?

Photo Credit: xvaughanx

The following questions are some critical questions that you, as small business web site owner should ask your web development guy.

If you do NOT have some of these items, they are easy, but necessary, fixes to your business web site. These are the basic building blocks upon which search engine optimization occurs (in other words – the basic building blocks that will help potential customers find YOUR web site when they search the Web – and they WILL search the Web first).

• Do I have unique, keyword rich page titles on each and every page? (View example)
• Do I have unique page descriptions written in common vernacular and keyword rich on each page? (View example)
• Do I have unique, relevant keywords and keyword phrases (meta tags) in the HTML code for each page? (View example)
• Do I have an XML site map? (View example)

If you don’t have these bases covered and your web guy argues with you about them, I’d say it’s time to move on.

This isn’t a post about what to do with the traffic once it gets there. Nor is it an advanced tutorial on Search Engine Optimization – that will be left to someone far smarter than myself, like maybe our friend Will Scott down in New Orleans, who specializes in local search optimization or another friend Ryan Kelly out in San Antonio that is behind one of the smartest, most user-friendly SEO tools I’ve seen in a long time.

For now, I just want to remind you that your small business web site needs attention in order to bring you a return on investment. Andy often says it this way: “A web site truly begins when it’s finished.”

Here are a few basics that you absolutely must address with your small business web site, no matter how local or “mom and pop” you are.

1. Update your site often. Often equals no less than once per week. If you do not have a web site that you can easily and quickly update yourself or train a teenager to update without need for any additional software, you might want to get a site update done. In 2010, there is no reason that a complete novice can’t update his/her own web site in a basic way in about ten minutes. Updates mean a lot to the search engines and to your customers. Regular updates mean there is a REASON for me to visit your web site repeatedly – and visiting reminds me to buy.
2. Create a strong collection of inbound links. Inbound links are simply links on the web that point to a page on your web site. It is much more complicated than this, but when boiled down you simply must have an increasing number of inbound links pointing to various pages of your web site. How do you get inbound links? Here are a few ideas:If you’re a locally owned and operated, independently owned small business, take advantage of the free listing in our Shop Main Street Business Directory. It provides you with an inbound link to your web site and your blog (as well as your social media if you use those). Both huge wins for you in this department.

• Make a list of all of the major brands that you carry in your store. Contact your rep and ask to be listed as a dealer on their web site along with a link to your web site.
• Contact every organization of which you are a member. This includes Chambers of Commerce, civic clubs, etc. Ask them to post a membership directory with links to business owners’ web sites. Make sure you are there with a link back to your web site.
• Submit press releases to the local newspaper when you have events or announcements, including new hires, new product lines, new or altered services, etc. Make sure they post on their web site with a link back to your business. Most will accommodate this request gladly if you write the article for them.
• Offer to write guest blog posts for related web sites and get links back to your web site through the attribution of these posts. This is a double whammy because it lets you show off your expertise, has relevant keywords that match your web site (hopefully) and gets you the inbound link(s). We love guest bloggers here… just ask me.
• Post articles in article directories.

3. Drive traffic to your web site. Inbound links certainly help with that. However, you can do a lot OFF-line and through online marketing that can increase traffic.
4. Traffic tends to beget traffic. Simply put, search engines often follow the crowd, so the more traffic you drive to your web site, the more traffic you will get through search. Here are some additional ideas for driving traffic to your web site.

• Send out regular e-mail messages with multiple links back to specific pages of interest on your web site.
• Include your URL on all store signage, advertising and other outreach efforts.
• Create a bag stuffer or bag tag that gives your customer a new reason to buy or increase their shopping frequency. Point them to the web site to learn more.
• Create on-line exclusives, coupons, and contests that can only be accessed at your web site. Promote these offers off-line.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

The most important thing to remember is that social media is still a media. Which means it is still a marketing TOOL – not an end to itself. However, in contrast to both traditional media and new media tools, such as web sites and e-mail, social media is used differently. By name and nature, it is SOCIAL which dictates a relationship. At the very least, this demands a TWO-SIDED conversation/interaction format.

More specifically, social media differs from traditional media in that anyone can create, comment and add to social media. Social media can take the form of text, audio, video, images and communities. Traditional media doesn’t let you PROVE how many visitors or engaged customers you really have (Yes, I know all about Neilson ratings and circulation numbers – How many of you really believe all of that?). Social media shows you REAL numbers for your audience – or at least a more “real” number than any other media that’s ever existed for small business marketing purposes. Social media also allows you to track and know information about your audience – not just know that they’re there.

WHO USES SOCIAL MEDIA & NEW MEDIA?

1. Practically everyone uses Google and other search engines regularly, and the searches frequently return blog posts, YouTube videos or other social media content high in the search ranks. So even people who say they don’t use social media are actually consuming social media content without knowing it.
2. 63% of consumers turn to the Internet FIRST to find a local business. (Yet a whopping 80% of business owners reported spending LESS THAN 10% of their marketing budget on web-based marketing.) – Source USA Today Snapshots, March 5, 2009 – cited Neilson Online/Web Visible survey of small business owners.
3. When people who are NOT social media users ask their non-social media networks for advice (usually via e-mail or phone call), the answers come back include URLs to blog posts and other social media content.
4. There are more than now 400 million active users of Facebook (up 150 million from one year ago). More use Facebook than any other existing media (including television). The fastest growing demographic are those 35 and older. More than 2/3 of the users are outside of college age. By nature of the beast, those users are also at least semi-educated, literate and computer literate – making them far more likely than average radio or television listeners to have a decent income.
5. YouTube statistics – Recently, I got to inform a client that 74% of his target audience visited YouTube at least once every two weeks and often multiple times a day. They were shocked. They where even more surprised when I told them that a significant number of those visitors used YouTube on a daily basis to research products and services, view product demonstrations, and find information for work purposes. But, when I told them that visitors to YouTube actually based their buying decisions on what they saw on YouTube, well, they were shocked and couldn’t wait to hear more.
6. On October 9, 2009, the third anniversary of the acquisition by Google, Chad Hurley announced in a blog posting that YouTube was serving “well over a billion views a day” worldwide. comScore had previously reported that the number was actually over 10 billion per month. In September 2009, and the average video viewer watched more than 10 hours of video during that month. That’s pretty significant.

Those are just a few reasons why social media is critical to your business. This doesn’t tell you how or when or how often to use social media. (Strategically is a good start – it’s not a waste of time play tool anymore! And it’s getting crowded, so you have to stand out in the crowd by doing it smartly.) But hopefully, if you’re a business owner or community leader trying to convince yourself or your fellow locally owned, independent small business owner friends and colleagues to network with you, promote your business and your community using social media tools, this will give you some ammunition to open some eyes during that conversation.