This is a harsh message for business owners to hear when it comes to Internet marketing and your web site.  NO ONE cares about you, or your factory, or your official letter in last months newsletter, or what your employees did at the company picnic last week.  The harsh reality with the Internet is that it is all about ME. What’s in it for ME on your web site, what’s important in your blog to ME, what’s so great about your social media status to ME?

Check out this great video by Seth Godin, a true marketing giant and remember to gear your Internet marketing efforts towards your prospects and clients, not your likes or your admin assistants’ favorite color:

Need help crafting your Internet Marketing message? Give me a call, In Orlando: 407-830-4550 or nationwide: 866-998-6886. You may also wish to visit my other blog here: Internet Marketing Experts

When it comes to Internet Marketing, there is no snake oil, no magic bullet, no get rick quick overnight sensations that actually work.  Internet marketing requires strategy, thought and ready for this one…….. Hard Work.  You didn’t start your own business to take the easy way out.  You started your business because you truly love what you do and are passionate about what you do.  So, the next time you get an unsolicited (SPAM) phone call from a so called Internet Marketer promising your company the world, run the other way, or at least hang the phone up on them. You can be polite if you so choose.

Here are a few ‘triggers’ to watch out for:

1.) We’ll Get You Found In The Search Engines In 14 Minutes.
2.) GUARANTEED Top One Organic Search Engine Placement For All Of Your Keywords.
3.) Overnight Results For Only $19.95.
4.) Get Rich In 25 Minutes With My Unique Internet Marketing Program.
5.) We Right Copy 4 You’re Web Site Fromm India (please note, misspellings and incorrect grammar intentional….)

Again, nothing that is worth anything happens overnight, so don’t expect your web site to be flooded with sales the day you put it live. Assemble an Internet marketing plan and stick to the plan.

Need help with an Internet Marketing plan or strategy? Call me at 866-998-6886 or in Orlando: 407-830-4550 today.

If you like theseoceo.com be sure to check out my other company blog at http://ontargetwebsolutions.com/search-engine-blog/

How are you connecting with your clients and prospects? Where do they hang out? What do they pay attention to? What are they interested in?

Without truly connecting with our prospects and clients and speaking their language, we never truly get the maximum out of the relationship.

The Internet can be a great connector. Whether it’s a monthly email newsletter, a new blog article, a Facebook wall post or Tweet, the web gives us all a tremendous opportunity to truly connect.  Here’s the key: Once you speak, LISTEN. Once they speak, talk to them.  Companies that are not connecting are missing a huge potential.

How do you connect?

So, your company is lacking an online presence. You need leads. You’ve read a few books like The Idiot’s Guide To Web Sites, clearly, you’re armed and dangerous and can save your company thousands of dollars by doing it yourself. You spend weeks and weeks trying to get those goofy tables to line up, playing with stock photography, messing with colors and BAM. You put your shiny new web site live. You are now, clearly, a web designing professional. Sales should be shooting up in no time RIGHT?

Let’s hope so. Did you incorporate a call to action? Does your copy entice your demographic to take action? Does your site instill confidence in your prospects and clients? Did you research the keywords that your PROSPECTS would type in to find your products or services? Did your web site design speak to the right audience? Does it engage people?

A web site is so much more than a collaboration of stock art and code. To truly reach out to your audience in a professional way, hire a marketing firm that will take the time to understand your target audience and build a site that can be found in search engines and CONVERT clicks into sales. No offense, but your first web design should NOT be for your company. Spend your valuable time running your business and trust marketing professionals to bring your image alive.

I met with an existing client today who was seeking new ways to pull in targeted traffic to their web site and reach a targeted audience.  I suggested at some point that true marketing is all about the end consumer, not the CEO, not the CFO, not the marketing manager, but the person on the other end who will be writing you a check.  After a brief discussion, we had determined that all of their marketing materials were always about them…. Look at us, we’re wonderful, we’ve done this, we sponsor this, we love this, etc.  There was nothing about the consumer, especially not on their web site. By the end of our discussion, we had shaped and molded a new marketing plan aimed at solving the consumer’s issues, NOT about a tour of their warehouse and a letter from the president.

Consumers have problems, you fix them. Consumers need shoes, you sell shoes.  Consumers don’t know how to sell their commercial property, you do.  Once you start gearing your marketing materials to the end user, amazing things start to happen. You start to become the expert, you start to become a leader, you start talking the right language to the right people, you start getting targeted leads and results.

Need help moving to the next level with your marketing? Call me: in Orlando: 407-830-4550 or toll free: 866-998-6886.

I’ve worked with a company here in Orlando that is all over the place in terms of it’s identity.  They change their direction daily which in this case does NOT help the bottom line.  They sell a tangible product, yet they are trying to be something they are completely not, and further, something that has nothing to do with what they actually sell.  They wonder daily why sales are down, they go through employees like water and their existing clients are dropping like flies. The company actually sells a great product to a great market with a great turnaround time, yet they insist that emotional pleas and community service efforts should be the story that they wrap around their product when they only really need to let the product speak for itself. Identity Crisis.

Who is your company? Where is your company going? What exactly do you sell and how amazing is your product? Do you have a corporate mission? If not, it’s time to define your identity and stick to that identity. The more that you change your story, the more confused your prospects and clients become.

I got an an email from a client the other day letting me know that they would not be able to afford my services any longer due to some financial issues.  My team was responsible for running their pay per click campaigns, organic SEO campaign, facebook ppc & social media initiatives, all which came to an abrupt halt right when they needed it the most. Their sales are way down this year over last year, not as a result of failed marketing efforts, but rather, a shift in their industry and a shift in the ownership of the company. A tremendous opportunity awaited this company online, opportunity that over the LONG HAUL would have helped them to regain market share.

This same scenario happens nearly everyday with businesses and their marketing budget. The second sales start to lag, the first knee jerk reaction is to cut all of the budgets, including and sometimes especially, the marketing budget.  I’ve been in the exact same position as many of these businesses before.  There were two months in my company’s 5 year history where sales came to a screeching halt.  As a result, I was forced to layoff some employees and make other drastic decisions to stop any bleeding.  During that stressful 2 months, I needed leads and prospects more than I ever did before. I did second guess some of my marketing efforts (wondering where it could have failed) but knew that slow and steady does win the race.  The second you take your eye off of the prize, you could be in for more painful months down the road.

If you do need to cut back marketing expenditures, I suggest that you go Guerrilla. Start blogging, start talking, start stirring the pot.  Put out a press release stating that your company is poised for growth in the 4th quarter, let your existing clients know how much you love them, in every way possible, generate a stir or buzz about your company. The key, don’t STOP. When times are tough, put it into over drive.

I meet with so many business owners / CEO’s that fear success.  I completely understand the fear, I have at times, lived the fear.  The fear creeps up just when it’s time to move your company forward. It requires energy, it requires risks, it requires commitments.

Each time we build a web site and begin an Internet marketing campaign, the optimum goal is this: More leads. More targeted traffic, more sales, etc.. Once I start discussing those goals, fear starts to creep in.  “What if I get too many leads?” “What if we can’t sustain the growth”, “What if we can’t deliver the product as promised?” These are of course VERY genuine concerns, but, I encourage business owners to look at it like this: What if you don’t increase your lead base? What if you don’t improve your web site and your competition does? What if you don’t engage people with social media? You can always scale up, you can always sub work, if you put your mind to it, you can find a solution quickly. That’s why you are in business. That’s who you are. That’s why we both love owning our own businesses.

When faced with your next corporate fear, try turning the question around, What if you don’t take such and such action?

“Getting Real is about iterations and lowering the cost of change. Getting Real is all about launching, tweaking, and constantly improving which makes it a perfect approach for web-based software.” From the book Rework.
-Jason Fried & David Heinemier Hanson (Founders of 37Signals)

My SEO and web design company has served hundreds of companies throughout the years, we’ve built hundreds of web sites and run several successful internet marketing campaigns. During this time, I’ve become intrigued with how different companies handle launching their web site differently.  One such organization, a non-profit took over ONE year to launch their web site, another rather large business took over 11 months.  Note, this isn’t the amount of time it took my company to complete the web site, this is the amount of time it took us to get a ‘final’ approval from the client.  I’ve started to notice that some companies are just scared.  Some CEO’s are scared of success.  What if this web site actually works? What if we actually get more business as a result? What if my sales double? Focusing and obsessing about the What If’s of a new web site and marketing campaign can lead to what I call failure to launch. Failure to launch is all about fear and excuses.

As a fellow business owner, I get how important your corporate image is online, I understand how important it is to review copy, I totally understand how important each image is on your web site: but here are some considerations:

* Copy can be easily changed once a web site is live.
* Images can easily be changed once a web site is live.
* Pages can easily be added once a web site is live.
* While your web designer should proof read for you, spelling errors can easily be corrected.

What I’m getting at is this: the longer you have your 1992 version of your web site, the more business you risk losing.  I’m not suggesting that you do anything have assed, but there comes a point when you need to take a leap of faith and just move forward.  It’s time to Get Real, your web site can and should be a fluid ever changing organism.

I met with a 20 something prospect today who was interested in a web site and on going marketing for someone else’s business. She was to relay the information to the business owner and make recommendations, etc. on whether he chose my company or not to perform the work. As I tried to dive into my usual marketing dog and pony speech she interrupted me telling me she didn’t need to hear it. All she wanted was pricing. She continued to explain to me that she has a marketing degree, so she doesn’t need to hear it. She obviously knows everything there is to know about demographics, Google, targeted Internet marketing etc. because, clearly, they teach you all that stuff in school.

After I heard the same thing over and over I gave up. She wasn’t going to listen, she’ll never value what we do and frankly, she wasn’t the decision maker. The thing that killed me about the whole meeting was this, her fresh degree has never had the opportunity to be tested. This whole experience got me thinking about HOW VERY IMPORTANT it is for us to hire the right people. A degree is great, it shows you made it past high school and that you had some ambition. What really impresses me about people is their drive, their zeal, their enthusiasm and their perspectives on marketing.

Here’s the moral of the story: whether you are seeking to hire a janitor, a marketing manager, an account rep, try and look past the shiny new piece of paper and look for wisdom, experience, drive, zeal, enthusiasm. I’d much rather surround myself with passionate people with a genuine desire to continue to learn.