Let me explain.

Suppose you fell off a ladder and landed on your arm.  It swells and hurts real bad, so you get in the car and head on over to the emergency room.  Just like you’d expect, the doctor orders an x-ray, finds there’s a break, so he cleans you up, prescribes some pain meds, puts on a cast, and asks you to come back in for a check up in a couple weeks.

Your reply is,  “Thanks Doc!” because he did everything possible to help you and you appreciated it.  He evaluated your injury, believed you needed all those services, and even though they cost you money he ordered them anyway – to best serve you.

Here’s the point: serve your customers in every way possible.  Some say, “It’s your moral obligation…” to do so.

What if the doctor in my allegory just said, “Here’s a Band-Aid, go home and rest.”  You would likely suffer more pain, possibly an infection, possibly a lifelong injury – that all could have been avoided.

Like the good Doc, if you evaluate your customer’s needs, wants and desires, believe you have the best solution for them, and then proceed to serve them well, they will reply, too, “Thank you!”

Online Marketing Solutions Training – It’s Your Moral Obligation To:

Evaluate – online marketing solutions training:

Using the Internet, you can find and qualify those who need what you offer, those your products and services would best serve.  Then once you find them, you can educate them about you and your offers, make sure they fully understand what you have, how it can help, and why they should choose you over someone else offering the same or similar products and services.  Don’t blindly sell your stuff to people who don’t want, or need, or desire it.  Find the right people.  Evaluate them to see if there’s a good fit.  And then and only then do whatever you can to serve them, to meet their needs, to fulfill their wants, to make them happy, to solve their problems, to get them closer to achieving their goals.

Believe – online marketing solutions training:

If you believe your offer is the best possible solution on the market, then they’ll believe, too.  You can make them believe by sharing why you believe, sharing stories of happy customers, partners, and peers.  All that belief will help build trust in you and your offer.  You can deliver that belief in messages using email, e-books, videos, or podcasts – all over the Internet, before you ever speak to them.  Getting your message across to your market first, and instilling belief will go along way in converting a visitor to your site into a customer and an eventual loyal repeat customer.

Serve – online marketing solutions training:

Don’t be shy about telling your prospects to use your products.  Tell them they’ll help (because they will), give them a reason to believe (share successes), and then ask them to buy (so they can start enjoying their own successes).  They will have no problem handing over their hard earned cash for something you offer – if what you offer is more important to them than the money you charge.  Think about the allegory I shared a moment ago… “Just fix my arm Doc, I don’t care how much it costs.”

Give them something that’ll help now.  Don’t make them wait.

Provide an e-book, a membership site, a video lesson, or a podcast – 24/7 – that answers burning questions or solves a problem they’re facing.  Charge them something ridiculously reasonable – $7, $17, $27 to solve their problem right there on the spot.  They’ll pay for knowledge they desperately want.  Then deliver first class information… so later, when it’s time to buy something more – perhaps a physical product, in-person service …

They’ll choose you.

Because they’re already invested in you, they know more about you then the other guy, they trust you and your stuff because it’s top quality, and you have much more information available to them; to help them decide.

These are not complicate tactics to implement.  And they work.  Put together a plan today and put your plan into action.  Serve as many people as possible…

It’s your moral obligation.

To get more help, more online marketing solutions training… just enter your information in the one of the simple forms on this page to join one of our free webinars held each week.

Or are you completely satisfied with every aspect of your business?

Odds are, not.

1. So set some goals.
2. Make a plan to meet them.
3. Measure your progress.
4. Review often.
5. Regroup, re-plan, if needed.

… 5 rarely used steps that could radically change your business, if followed.

Some the top article marketing benefits include:

• Targeted traffic
• Higher converting traffic (article does “pre-sell”)
• Builds trust and authority
• Back-links for website (big SEO benefit)
• Easy way to syndicate your content (get your message to go viral)
• Articles can be used for other purposes (e.g. compiled into books, converted into videos or podcasts) to give away as “lead magnet” or even to sell.
• Articles get ranked high by search engines and get top spots, sometimes faster than your website.

There’s probably several more.  Have other ideas, let me know.  Leave a comment.

See some of my articles here.

Want your 2012 to be better than your 2011?

Want more customers in 2012 than you had in 2011?

Want to make more money than you did in 2011?

Then you you need to do things differently, better.

You need a plan.

Don’t drift into the New Year not knowing whether this year will be any better than the last.

Take on the new year KNOWING it will be better, because you have a plan that you’re confident will work.

List your goals:

• # of leads
• # of customers
• # of dollars
• # of success stories
• # of referrals
• # of awards
• # of patents
• # of gifts to charity

Devise a plan:

• To build a better website
• To generate more traffic
• To create more customer-focused products
• To build a better relationship with my leads and customers
• To become more innovative
• To give more to charity

Write them, type them, print them out, place them somewhere conspicuous.

Go achieve them!

Integrated marketing aligns all aspects of your business with a single purpose: serve your market better.

It’s making your products, packaging, billing, fulfillment, support, documentation, and every other part of your business customer-focused.

A big mistake made by many businesses (large and small) is narrow marketing – marketing focused just on product research, development, advertising, and sales.

A plan that stops short of the whole customer experience.

Think and act integrated…

• Make your products best in class, of course, your sales focused on the constantly changing wants & needs of your market, your packaging clear, crisp, innovative, interesting, and exciting!

But don’t stop there.

• Make your billing easy, accurate and painless.
• Make your fulfillment fast and efficient.
• Make your support proactive, polite, informative, inviting, and outstanding.
• Make your documentation clear, accurate, and up-to-date.

List all the functions of your business…

List every department, every role you play, every part of your business the customer sees and every part they don’t.

Everything you do (customer-facing or not) should all be aligned with your marketing plan.

This kind of integrated marketing will help you stand out from the crowd…

To be remarkable.

Think about it.

Make a plan.

Put your plan into action.

Idea #2: Send more emails to your customers.

And before you know it, you could have a $48,500 payday… read on.

If you have people visiting your store, buying your products, using your services and you’re not making it a point to follow-up with them, then you’re missing an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

This is one of the most lucrative online marketing ideas for small business owners.  And perhaps one of the least used.

Take a minute and ask your customers for their name and email address.

Give them something in return… a gift of some sort, but make sure it’s valuable; something they actually want.

Tell them what to expect, “I’ll be sending you information, offers, and free gifts — only available to my email subscribers.”

And then do what you said you’d do… actually send them information, offers, and free gifts.  And not “so what” information, offers, and free gifts, but “Wow! thanks!” information, offers, and free gifts.  Stuff they love.

Keep sending, too.  A few times a week (or more).  If you’re providing value, they’ll gladly open your emails.

Do more than your competitors.  Give more.  Provide more value.  Get to know your customers better.  And when you need some feedback for a new project idea, or when you’re running a promotion, or have something to sell… you have a growing list of loyal subscribers who will gladly give some feedback, have a look at your promotion, or buy what you’re selling…

Because you’ve created a bond with them.  They trust you and your stuff.  And anything you have to offer is worth a look, and if the offer is a fit, they’ll probably buy.

Consider this…

Over time your email list will grow.  And eventually, it will become quite large.  So now imagine how much revenue you could generate from a single email sent to your subscribers asking them to buy your new $97 product.  If just 5% of your 1000 subscribers buy (a very conservative number) you would earn $4,850 from a single email.

What if your email list had 2000 subscribers?? That’s a $9,700 payday.

What if you had 10,000 subscribers?? That’s a $48,500 payday.

Those numbers are not pie in the sky numbers.  They’re very attainable.

If you could add a hundred or so new subscribers to your email list each month… over a few years you could very easily have 10,000 subscribers on your list… even sooner, if you use some advanced list-building techniques… tactics we’ll cover another time.

So start building your list right away.  Keep building.  The future is looking bright!

Implementing this idea using this free tool from Google could easily double or even triple (or more) your business in the span of just a few months (or sooner).

This is one of the easiest online marketing ideas for small business owners to implement.  And one of the most effective profit-producing ideas, too!

What if a plumber knocked at your door at the exact moment your garbage disposal jammed?

What if the pizza delivery person arrived just as their commercial ended leaving with a hankering for pizza?

What if the flower shop delivery person rang the doorbell with a dozen roses in hand just as you realized you forgot your anniversary was today?

Well you CAN deliver your products and services to your market in the same way –  to people who want them at the instant they want them — using the Internet.

Step 1: Use the Google Keyword Tool to determine what your market wants.

Step 2: Create a website tailored around what your market wants.

Step 3: Optimize your website for the keywords you discovered in the Google Keyword Tool.

Then…

You’ll know exactly what your market wants… because people told Google and Google’s keyword tool told you.

You’ll know exactly when they want it… they want it when they are searching for it on Google.

AND… you’ll know exactly where there are when they want… they’ll be clicking on the top results in Google…

Which is where you want to be at that exact moment!

Follow steps 1, 2, and 3 above and you will… or give us a call.  We can help.

That means be…

• Simple
• Interesting
• Relevant
• Useful
• Helpful
• Descriptive

Apply ALL of the above to your site’s…

• Title tags
• Description meta tags
• URLs
• Content
• Headings
• Anchor text
• Image Alt tags

Make sure your site…

• Is easy to navigate.
• Has a sitemap for your visitor’s (one that’s easy to read) and a different one for the search engines (in XML).
• Restricts robots from pages not useful to your visitors.
• Has “nofollow” tags for user submitted links; e.g. in comments and in forums.

Remember, your site is for people.  Build it for people and the search engines will like it, too.

Get started
Move fast
Set deadlines
Meet deadlines
Set goals
Write down their goals
Surround themselves with other successful people
Never quit
Keep trying
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Leverage other people’s time and money and resources
Take risks
Plan
Follow through
Keep their promises
Don’t make promises they can’t keep
Avoid people that bring you down
Don’t pay any attention to negativity
Learn from their mistakes
Make lots of mistakes
Take action
Be aggressive

There’s easily hundreds more. But that’s a good start.

Have something to add to my list?

Leave me a comment.

The more user-friendly your webpages are…

The more relevant to your visitor’s needs they are…

The more useful your webpages are…

The more up-to-date and fresh…

The more the search engines will like them — not just now — but in the future, too.

You ever hear that the search engines keep changing, and you need to keep changing to keep up?

Well, that’s kinda true… Yes, the search engines keep changing, but do you need to keep changing?

Maybe. Let me explain…

Yes, of course the search engines keep changing… they do change their algorithms all the time — to ensure they are providing their users with the best results — the most up to date, relevant, and useful information.

They need to do that — otherwise their users will go elsewhere to find results — to the next search engine — and the next one until they find one that works best.

BUT the same goes for you and your webpages. If you just focus on…

Meeting your visitor’s needs —- first.

Providing relevant information.

Providing useful information.

Providing fresh and up-to-date information for your visitors…

They’ll stay, come back often, and tell their friends about you.

So be relevant, useful, and up-to-date and not only will your visitors be happy — so will the search engines…

now and forever.

That’s the best way to keep up with the search engine changes.

Do that (serve your customer well) and you won’t have to worry about all the changes they (the search engines) keep making — because your website will already be optimized…

What search engines want?
They’re looking for the pages that best meet their user’s needs and you do that already, right?

Of course you need to do some research to know what terminology your market uses — so you can use the same terminology on your webpage.

Of course you need to place those words (your market’s terminology) on your webpages — so your visitors will see what they’re looking for… in the places they typically look… the title, the headline, the opening paragraph, to name a few.

Of course you need to make your website easy to navigate…

Of course you need to be honest and truthful with your visitors so they’ll feel welcome and trust you with their precious time and (if you really impress them) money…

Do those things and those visitors will tell their friends and before you know it webpages around your town, country, and maybe even world will be pointing to you as the authority … (all those links to your site are called back links).

BINGO.

THAT is all the search engines want. A great website that people love; evidenced by its quality content and popularity around the web.

This is good old plain marketing. And it happens a pretty good SEO strategy, too.

Contact me and we can discuss your business goals in detail and I’ll help you give the search engines no choice but to move you to the top and keep you there.

Remember, serve your customer first. Do it today, tomorrow, forever. Then not only will a crowd start following you.

So will the search engines.