Where do you get potential clients for business? In difficult economic times,  this is a very important question that all small business owners or anyone self-employed is asking.  As a South Florida SEO business, we focus on search engines and internet marketing.

Let me list a few of the areas you can get your potential clients for business:

• Internet Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing (paid or free)
• Word of mouth (WOM)
• Email marketing
• TV advertising
• Radio advertising
• Soliciting (door-to-door or phone)

Now I’m going to dig a little deeper into the huge possibilities of internet marketing:

• Social media (Facebook, Linkedin, My Space, etc…)
• Videos (Youtube is the biggest website and it’s owned by Google)
• Articles
• Press Releases
• Directories

When working to find potential clients through internet marketing you need to implement search engine optimization to maximize the possibilities! Otherwise, in a world where millions of people search for websites, your business will get lost in the shuffle of all the other businesses trying to market themselves.

When you choose to use internet marketing for your business, you can also benefit from word of mouth and gain potential clients for business by successful internet marketing and search engine optimization; potential clients from WOM can come along without any added work!

I hope this helps you with some new ideas as you look for potential clients for your business! Send us an email  or comment on our SEO blog if you have questions about internet marketing or search engine optimization.

Have you wondered what the significance is of creating a Facebook Page for business? You have a business website, but the world is also jumping into social media! And businesses and organizations are no exception! Most businesses know about Facebook but many do not understand what exactly is needed.

Facebook has grown tremendously in the last two years! There are now over 400 million active users! You probably have a personal profile on Facebook.  But what about your business presence in Facebook?

I’ve seen many who have incorrectly created a “personal profile” to represent their business.  That’s not good! Here are 5 reasons why:

1. It’s against Facebook rules – Facebook wants profiles created for individuals ~ not an organization. (Ex.  Profiles ask for first and last name, siblings, etc.) It’s not too late to correct this problem. Ask us how to make a smooth transition.
2. Businesses should create Facebook pages – Facebook Pages are customizable to market your business! For search engine optimization, make sure to add good keywords where ever possible and click-able links that will help give value to your website.
3. People can “like” your Facebook Page without requesting a friendship -  This saves you valuable time and stops giving the impression that your business alienates any friendships. How does a person feel when they have to wait a week for confirmation? Compare that to Facebook pages that automatically approve a friend.
4. A Facebook Page has analytic reports – This helps you have a better understanding of who are your fans and supporters, how they respond to your business, and how well you are doing with the Facebook page.
5. A Facebook Page shares administration rights – You can make more then one person an administrator.  This means updates can be distributed to several persons. This is very important for any business organization!!

Personal profiles, group pages and business pages share information, upload videos, pictures and can link to other websites. That’s why it can be very confusing since it may not seem any different at first glance.  There are also aspects that can not be changed once you create it. So, be careful if you plan to create a business page on your own!

Creating a Facebook Page for Business is a great step toward integrating social media into your marketing plan.  If you haven’t taken this step, what’s stopping you? Need  some help? Contact us today!

Can you improve your marketing in 2010? Did you end well with your business in 2009? If not, you want to plan on making some marketing resolutions for 2010!

Many people do not have a budget for internet marketing in this economy. But there are some marketing resolutions any business can set up to do better with your customers in addition to potential customers.

Here are five marketing resolutions your business should put into practice:

1. Marketing Plan – Does your marketing plan consist of primarily print ads, television ads or radio ads? If so, you need to rethink the potential available in internet marketing. There are many different arenas of the web that can be marketed to meet the demands and information being sought right this very moment!

2. Your Website – Update your website and make sure it is optimized for search engines.  Does your website help customers know what to do with a great call-to-action? With technology constantly changing, so do websites. Don’t think just because you own a website that you will get leads or that people will want to buy a product from you. There are specific ways to enhance and give value to your site!

3. Web Reports – Do you look at any type of monitoring of your website? Have you compared different versions or styles to see what works best with your customers? Do you get any type of analytics or reports to see what web pages are doing well and which need to be changed? If not, track and measure your website and make modifications to get better results.

4. Social Media – Like it or not, social media is here and still growing every day! Do you have a presence in sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Youtube? If not, there is a way to do this successfully with social media optimization and engaging with your customers.

5. Listen – The key to Social Media is listening to your customers. Today’s businesses have become lax in this area. Not only do you need a web presence, but to do the job well, you need to listen to what people are saying and change the situation to build integrity, trust, and RELATIONSHIPS. Organizations fail in this important area of social media. Don’t be another company to contribute to this problem!

If you do any of these marketing resolutions, you are going to benefit and see results in 2010. Don’t be afraid to try and test this out. Don’t be a wimp and sit there and say, “Yeah, I need to do that some day!”

Be one step ahead of the rest! Connect and market to the people who want to purchase your products! Enjoy your customers, build new customers and see results in 2010.

Have a Great and Happy New Year!

Sometimes I look at companies and wonder why they don’t put more importance on their customers’ life value.  In the last 25 years, customer service has greatly declined.  Today, it’s all about monetizing your product.  I know revenue is important, but it shouldn’t be the anchor to your business.

When a company gains a customer’s business, the person is put on a mailing list in hopes of gaining more business in the future. That’s typical marketing. Now let’s take that one step further. Why is it important and what is the lifetime value of keeping a customer’s business?

Let me give you my own example of horrible customer service. I’ve been doing business with a bank for years. I had a problem and literally had to call a dozen times in a two week period. In those phone calls, I also got disconnected! Hopefully the reps didn’t hang up on purpose, but I really don’t know. After I took the initiative to make these phone calls, it got resolved from my persistence.  How loyal do you think I will be to them? I have already started doing business with one of their competitors and that company has done a great job and given me several bonuses for becoming a new client with them. Will the bank with the issue realize their loss at keeping me a lifelong customer? Probably not.

Let’s look at the dollar value of a customer.  To a business, if I spend $50/ month, in a year I am worth $600. $6000 every decade.  Without doing any advertising, the value of keeping my business is maximized from our relationship. There are several possible results if the relationship is strengthened:

1. New customers from a customer’s recommendation

2. Greater monetary value from lifelong customers

3. Lower cost of customer acquisition spent in marketing

So how do you maintain customers’ lifetime loyalty to a business? The answer is simple.  Clients need to see your integrity and credibility. How it that attainable? Listen to your clients and show them they are important by your actions. This is the business purpose for  social media!

Social media’s business objective is to build credibility and relationships.

Many businesses haven’t figured out the objective for social media. (Websites such as Facebook or Twitter.) When a customer complains, calls, writes, or emails, TAKE NOTICE.   I remember in the ’80′s the phrase, “the customer is always right!”  That may not be 100% accurate, but it sure is close.  In today’s economy, society has decided it’s about revenue and nothing else matters.

Let’s go back to my example that I mentioned above. How could this bank have come out ahead?

1. They could have called me back when we got disconnected.

2. They could have resolved the issue in 24 hours.

3. They could have given me a “gift” to apologize for the issue.

Any type of positive interaction would have turned the relationship around. But nothing happened. And now I am blogging about it! If I wanted, I could use names to hurt their brand and reputation.  Internet marketing is known for the negative feedback that gets posted and appears in search engine results. That is where search engine optimization will help. But I will leave that for another post!

When a business fails to understand the importance of the lifetime value of a customer, it breaks down its effectiveness in marketing and advertising. When a business doesn’t use social media to build customer relationships, it misses the mark and will never compound revenue from dedicated clients.

Will your business or organization fall apart because you failed to understand the value of your lifelong customers?  Your business foundation is not about monetizing your product but about maximizing your client’s relationship and loyalty.

If you are new to social networking, you might be asking this question -  Is social networking good or bad? From a marketing perspective, I can only see good come from it. And here are my reasons from both sides – the users side and business/company side.

It all began on a cold and stormy night. No, the story doesn’t begin like that! (Just kidding!) For Bethany Thomas and her husband Dmitri Zagidulin, social networking helped them out and did save their honeymoon! To summarize the story, this newlywed couple got stuck in Frankfurt (headed for St. Petersburg, Russia) due to incorrect information an Expedia agent gave to them concerning their visas.  Bethany decides to blog about their unhappy circumstance and gets support from their followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook. It ends out, everyone bombards Expedia asking them to help out this couple. Expedia finally dishes out good customer service and gives Bethany Thomas and Dmitri Zagidulina reimbursement for their expenses AND credit for future travel! To read the entire story, go to USA Today.

I look at this story and see a win-win situation. The newlywed couple gets help and Expedia turns their reputation around by giving them good customer service. In the end, all this hype about this couple will give Expedia some great brand recognition and most likely,  new customers who now see Expedia as a good company.

This is a great example of the power of social media, from both sides! Imagine if Expedia had refused to help this couple. Expedia‘s sales would decline! But instead, they made the right decision and now they are going to benefit from the power of social media.

If you have not yet taken the time to invest in social media, now is the time. It’s not too late to listen to what people are saying about your service/products to help your business out! You might realize your company needs to make some changes or create a product that your supporters are commenting and tweeting about to each other. Social networking is good and it works… if you are willing to listen to what is being said!

If you are posting video, where should you put it? This is a list of the top 10 video sites from April 2009. Note that Facebook is #10. Always make sure to add video to your Facebook business page. And what is #1? Google, of course! Don’t forget to get SEO (search engine optimization) done with your videos and web pages.

Top 10 Video Sites

Has your company asked you to show ROI (return on investment) for Social Media? Most companies are looking for quick and simple reports,  that can be viewed in a graph, that will prove if they should add Social Media to their equation. Unfortunately, there is not a simple answer in Social Media or Search Engine Optimization.

There are a number of combined metrics to track ROI from Social Media. To calculate the ROI, you need to include the following factors:

1. Traffic - (unique page views and regular page views)
2. Stickiness - (RSS as well as direct return visitors)
3. Visibility - (links and search ranking in search engines)
4. Viralness - (brand awareness)
5. Engagement - (comments, polls and surveys )
6. Income - (advertising, sales, and conversions)

The answer is not simple nor is it a quick ROI that a company prefers to invest in. Ultimately, a company who acquires the skills to build relationships and develop trust and credibility will result in customers who will support your company and share their reviews with family and friends!!

There are three reasons for implementing social media into any business.

1. Build relationships – Here is an opportunity to interact with persons who might not otherwise support your business. These persons like the business, but are typically not purchasing your products. Interacting with these people builds trust and creditability.

2. Internet marketing – Include a backlink to our own website to take advantage of search engines and internet marketing. It should be deeper linking to help build the importance of individual web pages.

3. Branding - Your business name or whatever is easy-to-grasp from your business should always be in the title and incorporated with each video and channel.

Frequently, I’ve been asked this question, “What is the definition of social media?”  This week I saw a great video that answers that question.  Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a variable that enhances search engine marketing. Social Media should be implemented into your business.  Is your business represented in Social Media? After viewing this video, take a look at some of the other search engine marketing posts and feel free to ask me a question!