Delivering Customers Blog

Are you an entrepreneur wondering how to get your business growing?  Are you hoping to make loads more money in 2012?  If so, then read on.

Take a moment to think about how much you are currently spending on marketing, and how you are spending it.  Maybe you have an ad in the yellow pages or the newspaper, or you're thinking about getting one.  Before you do, ask yourself this question: 'is this the smartest use for my business's money?'

Let's take a look at what kind of doe you'll be spending on these ads, and the kind of exposure they will give your business.  If you are a painter here in Ottawa Canada, a full-page colour ad in the yellow pages will run you up $5,622.40....per month!

Maybe you're thinking that an ad in the newspaper is a better option for you.  If you really want to grab a reader's attention, a full-page ad is your best bet.  But in the Ottawa Citizen, posting one of those bad boys on a Saturday will cost you a hefty $18,104.00.  Even the half page isn't much more affordable, at $10,059.50.

Remember, the newspaper ad will only give your company exposure for one day, and the yellow pages are quickly becoming obsolete.  A side-by-side comparison of the return of investment delivered by traditional marketing including print ads, to those delivered by online marketing will have you wondering why you would even bother with print.

Outsourcing a digital marketer will not only save your growing business money, it will help you make more money too!

For less than 1/6 of the price of a one-day full-page ad in Ottawa’s newspaper, you can get your business started up in an online marketing program that includes:

·       Management of your website

·       Search engine optimization

·       Reporting on your website’s monthly activity

·       Pay per click ads

·       Monitoring of web marketing results

·       Implementation of a toll free number for your company

·       Leveraging of social media

·       Implementation of calls to action

While I’m sure this sounds great, you’re probably worrying about the ongoing costs of outsourcing a digital marketer. This of course depends on who you decide to go with, but you’re looking at as little as $500 a month. That’s over 11 times less than the monthly cost of the yellow pages  ad alone!

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?  Well get a load of this: Here at Delivering Customers, we guarantee that our services will bring you sales.  If they don’t, then you don’t pay. It’s that simple.

Now go ahead and ask yourself that same question again, ‘what’s the smartest use of my businesses money’? 

Whether you are trying to attract new customers or keep your existing ones coming back, offering an email newsletter is a great way to help grow your business.  Wondering why you should implement this tactic into your digital marketing strategy? Here are a few reasons that might help to convince you…

1. Simply offering a newsletter is a great way to collect and nurture leads

Consumers like to receive news and special offers from the businesses that they find interesting. While suggesting that a website visitor sign up for your newsletter functions as a lead collecting tool, simply delivering the letter kick starts the nurturing process. 

2. Newsletters are a fantastic way to maintain communication with your existing customers

Keeping in touch with these people is crucial in your efforts to create customer loyalty for your business. An email newsletter will ensure that you are checking in with previous and existing clients on a regular basis, so they wont forget who you are. Delivering a regular newsletter has proven to increase the lifetime value of clients!

3. Email newsletters are cost effective and efficient

Sending out your newsletter via email will save you printing and mailing costs, and it’s quicker too!

4. Email newsletters can be used to expose pre-existing content

Whether it’s blog posts, articles, or surveys, you can link to them from an email newsletter, encouraging yet more interaction with your readers.

5. Because they are sent to a more receptive audience, these emails tend to generate a higher response rate than direct mail newsletters

Email newsletters are only sent to visitors who sign up for them, so the chances that they will be read and appreciated are much higher than with direct mail letters, which often get thrown directly into the trash.

6. Sending newsletters online is appreciated as a ‘greener’ option than print letters

Not only is email less expensive, it’s better for the environment too. As our society grows more aware of our impact on the planet, consumers are beginning to look for businesses that are environmentally conscious. 

While it is certainly important to take measures that will bring in new customers to grow your business, you don’t want to forget about those clients you have already served, or the ones you take care of on a regular basis. Are you doing anything to ensure that these clients will loyally return to you should they require your product or services again? 

It is crucial to maintain a relationship with previous customers because they are walking talking marketing tools. If you have provided exemplary customer service or products, chances are they will refer you to friends and family or return to you themselves. That is, if you are still fresh on their minds! To ensure that your clients are still thinking of you, consider creating a customer loyalty plan involving these simple steps.

Check in on them

Fire your customers an e-mail to ask how they are enjoying the product or service you provided. Not only is this your chance to make sure they remember your name, it also serves as a great opportunity to collect feedback from your clients. Use this information to ensure that you are delivering the best customer service possible to both new and returning clients.

Stay in touch

You may also want to keep these past clients in the loop about any special deals or promotions you put on, new product releases, or special events. Consider developing a simple rewards program. If they are up to date about the exciting value you have to offer, these customers will be eager to recommend your services or return to buy your product as a gift.

Offer incentives for referrals

Some apartment buildings offer a few hundred bucks off of your next month’s rent if you refer someone to move in. As you can imagine, every existing tenant is probably on a mission to round people in. You can reward loyalty by implementing this kind of program too! Offer a prize, rebate, or service to your existing customers that give you a referral, or send them a “new customers only’ offer that they can give to a friend!

We all know that obtaining new clients is crucial to the growth of a business, but we often forget that our existing customers can play a part in the process. Make a customer loyalty plan like the one described to grow a strong, loyal client base.

For more tips on how to grow your business, click here.

Whether you’re firing up a new business, or you are just unsure about how to use social media for your company, the time has never been better to take advantage of  a Twitter account. Over the past couple of years, Twitter has implemented a number of new features that will prove helpful in your endeavour to promote your company:

1- It can now be used for search engine optimization

Many business owners make the mistake of assuming that social media is simply used for expanding reach and engagement, and promoting brand awareness. While this is indeed true, activity in social media like Twitter can also help your company’s website rank higher in organic search results!

The more links that exist to direct potential viewers to your business page, the higher search engines rank your website in the competition to appear in search results. In an interview last year, both Google and Bing confirmed that tweeted links count towards a search engine’s organic rankings.

In the same interview, these search engine giants noted that your influence on Twitter (ie the more followers you have), the higher your authority. If these considerations alone aren’t reason enough to open a Twitter account for your business and start collecting followers, then what is!?

2- It now features specialized brand pages

Twitter recently introduced brand profile pages with features that create a compelling environment for followers. The new pages include large, customizable headers, which can be used to display a logo or tagline, creating a page that captures the essence of what your company is all about.

The new layout also includes a ‘featured tweet’ option, in which businesses can select a spefic tweet to appear above their timeline with optional images or videos attached. This is a great opportunity to promote particular campaigns or offers, as the featured tweet boasts a much longer shelf-life than a regular Twitter update.

3. They now offer imbeddable tweets

Also among this list of useful new features is the ‘imbeddable tweet’. This means that you can imbed a tweet onto your company webpage, blog, in emails, or anywhere else you like. Visitors can follow, retweet, or click on a link embedded on the tweet without actually going to the Twitter page.  This opens up amazing opportunity for businesses to showcase customer testimonials, get feedback on an issue, or even conduct polls!

Now that you have an idea of the ways that Twitter can help your business grow, check out some simple tips for optimizing your social media strategy.

February 14th is upon us once again. Love is in the air and Cupid is brandishing his bow. Here at DC, Valentines Day means one thing to us.  Hooking up …Using inbound links that is!

Inbound links share the digital love by linking to your website from other locations online. Not only can these links attract more visitors to your site, but they also have a significant effect on your rank in search engine results.

There are a number of considerations that determine the order in which Google’s search results appear.  Having lots of inbound links is a great way to establish authority and attract a little extra attention from Google’s algorithm.  Each time the algorithm detects a link to your site, it considers it a vote, and the more votes you have the higher you can rank in search results.  

The most beautiful thing about using this tactic is that it can foster give-and-take digital relationships with your suppliers, customers, and friends.  Help them out by providing links to their websites on your website or social media accounts, and ask them to do the same for you.

This may sound awkward but using inbound links doesn't necessarily mean just pasting URL onto your webpage.  You can embed hyperlinks right onto the content of your page, blog, etc. by using anchor text.

There are a couple of different ways you can do this. You may choose anchor text that gives some information about the destination page, like this: 

Today I visited the Delivering Customers homepage. 

Or, you may choose to use instructional anchor text:

If you don’t know what to get your wife for Valentines Day, click here.

So if you're thinking you'd like a little more company in your domain this Valentines Day, remember that giving out digital love to your suppliers, customers, or friends can have a bigger pay off than flowers and a box of chocolates!

How do you find customers on the web?  You help them to find you!  One of the most efficient ways you can build additional traffic to your company website and connect with more potential customers, is through a business blog.

Why You Should Blog

Over the last decade, blogging as a form of online marketing has exploded! Businesses are realizing that maintaining a blog is vital to making themselves public and accessible to potential customers, and it provides them with the chance to share their knowledge and expertise with a wide audience.

Besides its ability to establish expertise and optimize web presence, the blog is also attractive to business owners because it is relatively easy and inexpensive. Blogging doesn’t require learning html, and you can do it yourself, if you like.

What to Write About in Your Blog

So you’re ready to blog? Before you start typing away, take a moment to think about the audience you are trying to reach. Maybe you want to form a relationship with your customers, partners, and other players in your industry. What kind of information would be valuable to them? Read other blogs in your field to get a feel for what they are putting out there, and try to take a slightly different or new approach.

Maintaining Your Blog

Keeping a business blog is a commitment. In order to generate a following, and to help potential customers to find you, it is essential that your blog is updated on a regular basis. People will come to expect new material every so often, and if they find that you aren’t delivering, they won't bother with you any more. Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m too busy with other aspects of my business to worry about writing blogs!”  If this is the case, you may want to consider hiring someone to keep a blog for you.  And remember, it may take a while to get things rolling. Just hang in there, and more customers will be finding you before you know it!

So you’ve come to understand the importance that online marketing plays in the accessibility and growth of your business. Great! But delving into the world of SEO, or search engine optimization, requires learning a slew of new terms and industry jargon. But do your homework, get to know these words, and you’ll be talking the talk in no time!

To get started, you can refer to this SEO terms glossary:

Algorithm- this term refers to the program used by search engines to find the most relevant pages for a given query. The algorithm considers a number of factors, including age of the domain, title tag, meta tags, content of the website etc. in order to decide which pages show up, and in what order.

Anchor text- also called ‘link label’ or ‘link text’, the anchor text is the clickable, visible text that makes up a hyperlink. You know, the text that shows up dark blue and underlined, and can be selected to bring you to a new page. The anchor text usually provides some information on the subject of the destination page.

Analytics- this refers to the use of a program to gain statistics and data on the usage of your website, including traffic and conversions. Keeping an eye on these factors is very helpful to monitoring how the changes you make to your site affect the response and behaviors of your visitors. The most commonly used analytics program is Google Analytics.

Blog- this is the area of your website were you post content on a regular basis. Keeping a blog is important to optimizing your search engine results and establishing a web presence for your company. Remember, each new blog is a page on your website that search engines consider for query results!

Conversion form- also known as a ‘lead capture form’, this term refers to the tool through which information is collected from your visitors. These forms help you to convert traffic into leads. Once you collect contact information from your visitors, you can begin your lead nurturing process.

Domain- your domain is the main web address of your site. For example, here at DC our domain is www.deliveringcustomers.com. Keep in mind that the age of your domain will affect your rankings. Search engines also favour websites that have shown commitment by registering for several years of ownership.

Keyword- this is the word or phrase that a user enters into a search engine when they’re looking for something. For example, if my toilet is backing up, I might Google ‘Ottawa plumbing services’.

keywords are also one of the most important considerations in your endeavor to increase the search engine results for your website. Each page on your site should be optimized to draw in visitors based on specific keywords.

Long tail keyword- these are keywords that are uncommon, or infrequently searched. They are often comprised of two or more words, making up a short phrase. You should consider targeting these phrases, as they will help you to achieve a higher search ranking than keywords that are more competitive. One of the tools you can use to generate keywords that will be helpful to use on your website is Google’s Adwords.

Meta description- this is the brief, specific description of the contents of a web page. It’s usually displayed below the page title in search results, and helps the search engine identify the topic or purpose of a given site.

Organic search- these are search engine results that appear naturally based on a number of factors, and are not paid advertisements. In order for your web page to come up on top of organic search results, you must optimize for the specific keywords being searched.

PPC- this stands for pay-per-click, an advertising model used in web marketing that involves the positioning of a small ad on a search results page. These ads appear above or adjacent to the organic search results, and are paid for based on the number of clicks they generate.

RSS feed- often dubbed ‘really simple syndication’, RSS is a format used to deliver subscription-based updates and content from a web source. If you keep a business blog, you should consider setting up an RSS feed to help your followers stay updated.

Spider- also known as ‘web robots’, ‘web crawlers’, ‘bots’ and ‘internet bots’, these are terms that refer to computer programs that are written to browse the internet and collect information about websites.

Traffic- this term refers to the visitors of your site. The goal of your SEO efforts is to increase traffic, providing more opportunity to collect leads.

URL- this stands for ‘uniform resource locator’, and simply refers to the address of a particular web page. For example, the URL for this blog is www.deliveringcustomers.com/blog.

Now that you know a few of the key terms involved in SEO, you can begin learning how to implement some of the optimization tactics yourself!

Do you have a print ad in the Yellow Pages? Is it generating the type of response you hoped it would? Maybe you own a local garage door repair business, you’re reputable, and business isn’t bad. But like any other entrepreneur, what you’re after is growth. You want more business.

Unfortunately, your print ad isn’t going to deliver like they did back in the day. In this digital age, your potential customers are increasingly relying on search engines to find the service they’re after. In fact, studies have led us to expect that Yellow pages usage will decline by almost 40% over the next four years!

That being said, it’s easy to see why your online presence is crucial to the future growth of your business. Whether you already have a website or not, here are a few things you need to know about online marketing:

It’s cost effective

Compared to outdated directory ads, search engine optimization can bring you substantially higher returns on your investments.

It’s efficient

Online marketing reaches a large number of people quickly and efficiently.

It takes more than just slapping up a website

Remember, online marketing requires strategy and planning. Chances are your competitors are online too, and you have to take the steps to ensure that it is you that your potential customers find. Do this right, and you can toss those yellow pages were they belong: in the recycling bin!

What is a landing page and what makes them so sucessful? The landing page is the area of your website where traffic is sent to prompt a certain action or result. These pages play an important part in converting leads and ultimately helping you sell more. There are, however, some things to consider when utilizing these marketing strategy tools.

Keep in mind these 5 characteristics of highly effective landing pages:

They are direct

When a potential customer ends up on your landing page, you want to make sure that they know exactly what to do. Actionable and direct language should be used in titles and body text both to explain the value of what you are offering, and to prompt them towards your call to action button. For example, a link entitled "Click Here for Your Free Estimate Today" will be more effective than simply "Free Estimate".

They are tried and tested

Get in touch with your creative side and experiment with different looks. Do potential customers respond better to a certain size of font or colour combination? Try out a different layout, or a new photo (just make sure that it relates to the offer!). Most importantly, monitor how these changes affect visitor response and lead conversion. You may be suprized what a difference such a simple change can make!

They wont give you a headache

Bad landing pages are full of distracitons. Studies have shown that when we open up a new webpage, we spend the first 3 seconds orienting ourselves and ultimately deciding what acitons we will take on the site. It's vital to let your visitors focus. Get rid of any flashing text or animations, and limit any navigation opportunity to keep them on track with the task at hand.

They don't ask too much of their visitors

While a long, detailed lead capture form may provide a quality lead, to sell more it is important to find a ballance between quality and quantity. If potential customers are asked to fill out too many fields or do a lot of reading, they will start to wonder whether it is worth their time. Try to cap off the number of fields in your form at 11. And remember, always position the link to your lead capture form above the page fold, so visitors don't have to go looking for it.

They redirect to a thank you page

It's more than just a polite gesture! After your visitors fill in your lead capture form, send them directly to a "thank you" page. Make sure to introduce full navigation here, allowing them to look at other areas of your site and connect further with your company or brand.

Remember, a bad landing page wont help you reach your goals to sell more. Keep these considerations in mind and you will discover that if done right, these pages can act as one of your most fruitful marketing strategy tools! 

When it comes to online marketing, social media have quickly become one of the most effective ways to communicate information about your brand and to foster valuable customer relationships. There is much to learn, however, about communicating with a large, diverse audience, and while attempting to leverage social media for your business may be overwhelming at first, your efforts are sure to pay off. Here are a few hints to get you on your way...

Don’t – leave gaps in your profile/page information

It sounds like a no-brainer, but this is probably the simplest step you can take to leverage an organic search presence. When you fire up any social media account, make sure to provide as much information as possible about who you are, what you do, and how you can be contacted. Include a picture. Keep in mind that Google+ profile and page information is consistently incorporated into search results. Brand presence is a must!

Do - get your employees connected

Ask your staff to help generate local business by using their social networks on your behalf. If your employee’s connections know their friend or family member works for a local pet grooming company, chances are they will contact him/her when Fluffy needs a haircut.

Don’t - sound like a broken record

In the same way that Google’s algorithm penalizes websites with duplicate content in search results, Twitter will penalize users who make a misguided attempt to gain visibility by posting the same link or tweet repeatedly. Also avoid posting similar messages to multiple accounts. While a little bit of uniformity is okay, try to cater your content to each individual account to deliver more relevancy.

Do - keep your ear to the ground

Position yourself as a resource for local events in your industry. Whether live or web-based, you want to be on top of, and participating in, everything that is happening. Keep your audience coming to you for the scoop, and you’ll become an indispensable resource.

Don’t - get off topic

As you endeavour to secure a sustainable base of followers, it is important to maintain consistency when publishing your social media updates. Remember, your subscribers follow you for a specific set of reasons, and off-topic posts diminish the value of your account.

Do - monitor social media mentions

When people are talking about your brand, related products and services, or your competitors, you want to be the first to respond. Provide information about your product, answer questions, offer a coupon. Not only will your real-time information generate new leads and keep your existing customers happy, you will establish yourself as a local thought leader. Now that’s something to think about.

If you are like most business owners you probably sit around thinking about this very issue. How can I bring in just a few more customers this week, month, or quarter?

Chances are you offer a good product or service that your target market can benefit from but you don’t have a marketing system that consistently attracts the type of buyers your company is meant to serve.

While the effectiveness of yellow pages and local newspapers are providing diminishing returns a lot of business owners are depending on word of mouth as their only source for new business.

If this sounds familiar you are not alone, a lot of entrepreneurs are dealing with this very issue.

As Google replaces the yellow pages and people turn to the Internet for their news it is changing the way businesses have to market.

This change does not have to be scary, or expensive.

The first step is easy, put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Assume you are a potential customer in need of the product or service your company provides.

Visit Google and type in the name of the product or service you offer along with the city you live in.  Ex. Garage Door Repair London

You now see what your potential customers see when they visit a search engine. Do they see your company name or website, or do they see your competitors?

If you are interested in solving this issue fill in the form to the right and recieve a free evaluation of the marketing effectiveness of both your website as well as one of your local competitors.

How fitting that a charity identified with impressive facial hair growth is delivering remarkable fundraising growth.

Movember has been growing its global fundraising revenue at a 182% per year, a growth rate that would make any business owner envious.

Movember has leveraged social media and provided a platform for people to easily connect with their social network, upload daily pictures of their growing mustache, and take advantage of facebooks popular newsfeed function to prompt friends and family to donate.

From humble beginnings in Australia in 2004, Movember has quickly grown to a worldwide phenomenon with $76.8 million in worldwide charitable donations in 2010.

The simplicity of their campaign should be a case study in effective use of social media and viral marketing. I am sure thought leaders like David Meerman Scott & Seth Godin will use them as examples in future best selling marketing books.

Other charities and businesses could learn from their simple 4 step model.

1. Unique pages on charity site for each individual fundraiser (Mo Bro)
2. Easily tie into social networks
3. Quickly upload content in the form of daily or weekly pictures to hit social newfeeds
4. Prompt friends and family to donate and visit their unique page to monitor facial and fundraising growth.

Have you donated yet? If not here are a few of my Movember friends, Colin, Jim or Stu

Each week I have numerous conversations with business owners about their websites and online marketing. Here are 3 mistakes that are often made and are easy to fix.

1. Call to Action – the purpose of your website is to attract qualified buyers that are looking for your product or service and capture leads.

When somebody lands on your website, presumably they are interested in a product or service you have to sell. How easy do you make it for them to contact you? Is your phone number clearly displayed at the top of every page on your website? You want to make it simple and eliminate the need for them to wonder what they should do next. I recommend clear large font CALL NOW 555-555-5555

Here is an example 

2. Page Titles – What are they and why are they important? Good page titles are important to every web page on every website. The title is displayed at the top left of your browser when you open a webpage. You want to use the page title to let both your visitors and the search engines know what the page is focused on. The absolute worst page titles are home, about us, or just your company name. Search engines use titles as a sign of what each page is about, and home and about us don’t tell the site anything about your page, or business.

Examples of good page title

Basement Waterproofing Lancing Michigan

Crawl Space Repair Lancing Michigan

Examples of bad titles of pages 

Home, About Us, Contact Us

Good page titles are descriptive and tell the search engines what the page is about, and also indicate what location they are relevant for.  

Each page on your website should have a unique title and should describe the main focus of the page. I suggest including the city and state you are servicing as well.

Please see example of page title below top left corner it is Our Crawl Space Repair Product Line | Available in Vancouver Delta, Abbotsford

3. Page Descriptions – Once again too many companies leave this information up to their web designer or IT person. Here is why the description for each page is important. This descriptive paragraph is the information found on the search engine results just below the page title and url. The problem is you only get 150 characters. So you must condense the most important ideas into short phrases that capture the reader’s attention.

Example

So for the above example the page description is

Basements waterproofing contractor in greater Lancing and Grand Rapids Michigan – Ayers Basements Systems. Get our Free basement….

I hope these three tips will help you improve your website and drive more leads to your company. We offer a free website evaluation that compares your company website to that of one of your local competitors. We are able to give you more insight into how to improve your online lead generation. Please click here to request the Free Evaluation.

You can reach me toll free at 1-866-853-8726 ext 102 or by email at strier at Delivering Customers dot com or fill in a comment below. 

Every page on your site should have a call to action; a response you want visitors to complete.

But how do you encourage users to act?  How do you create an effective call to action?

The effectiveness of your site should not be measured by traffic but by the number of visitors you convert to paying customers. Every page on your site should have an objective it wants users to complete. whether it is filling in a contact form, requesting a quote, scheduling service, downloading a checklist, etc.

A call to action provides…

• Focus to your page 
• A way to measure your sites success 
• Direction to your users

How then do you create an effective call to action? Here are 5 techniques which help achieve just that.

#1 Use Active Urgent Language

A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as: 

• Call 
• Register 
• Schedule 
• Download

All of these encourage users to take an action.

#2 Get the Position Right

Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page and in the central column.

#3 Use White Space

It is not just the position of your call to action that matters. It is also the space around it. The more space around a call to action the more attention is drawn to it. Clutter up your call to action with surrounding content and it will be lost in the overall noise of the page.

#4 Use An Alternative Color

Color is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if the rest of the site has a fairly limited palette.

#5 Make It Big

As web designers we often get annoyed with clients who ask us to make things bigger. It is certainly true that size isn’t everything. We have already established that position, color and white space are equally important.

However it cannot be denied that size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.

Conclusion

An effective call to action is the key to a successful site and involves a combination of best practice in usability, creative design and powerful copy writing.

When done right it generates measurable return on investment, and in the current economic climate that is what we all want.

Click here to get your

FREE REPORT

on how your site is doing compared to your local competitor.

Each week I have numerous conversations with business owners about their websites and online marketing. Here are 3 mistakes that are often made and are easy to fix.

1. Call to Action – the purpose of your website is to generate leads and convert them to customers.

When somebody lands on your website, presumably they are interested in a product or service you have to sell. How easy do you make it for them to contact you? Is your phone number clearly displayed at the top of every page on your website? You want to make it simple and eliminate the need for them to wonder what they should do next. I recommend clear large font CALL NOW 555-555-5555

Here is an example 

2. Page Titles – What are they and why are they important? Good page titles are important to every web page on every website. The title is displayed at the top left of your browser when you open a webpage. You want to use the page title to let both your visitors and the search engines know what the page is focused on. The absolute worst page titles are home, about us, or just your company name. Search engines use titles as a sign of what each page is about, and home and about us don’t tell the site anything about your page, or business.

Examples of good page title

Broken Garage Door Spring - London Ontario, or Overhead Garage Door - London Ontario

Examples of bad titles of pages 

Home, About Us, Contact Us

Good page titles are descriptive and tell the search engines what the page is about, and also indicate what location they are relevant for.  

Each page on your website should have a unique title and should describe the main focus of the  page. I suggest including the city and state you are servicing as well.

Please see example of page title below top left corner it is Clopay Garage Door | Palm Beach | Commercial Residential | The Doorman of Southeast Florida

3. Page Descriptions – Once again too many companies leave this information up to their web designer or IT person. Here is why the description for each page is important. This descriptive paragraph is the information found on the search engine results just below the page title. The problem is you only get 150 characters. So you must condense the most important ideas into short phrases that capture the reader’s attention. Don’t just use the first sentence from your page. This is generally not a clear enough description of all the material.

Example

 

Charlotte Garage Doors | Garage Door Openers Repair

www.charlottegaragedoors.com/ - Cached

Expert Garage Door Repair and Overhead Door service for Charlotte North Carolina NC Metro Area.

So in the example above from Google search results the page title is  

Charlotte Garage Doors | Garage Door Openers Repair

And the Page Description is

Expert Garage Door Repair and Overhead Door service for Charlotte North Carolina NC Metro Area.

I hope these three tips will help you improve your website and drive more leads to your company. We offer a free website evaluation that compares your company website to that of one of your local competitors. We are able to give you more insight into how to improve your online lead generation. Please click here to request the Free Evaluation.

You can reach me toll free at 1-866-853-8726 or by email at strier at Delivering Customers dot com or fill in a comment below. 

For many businesses owners search engine optimisation is still something of a mystery. What they need is SEO explained simply,  SEO explained in a way they can immediately understand.

The thing is SEO is pretty simple. Google and other search engines return pages based on what their search engine software thinks is the most relevant and most authoritative page for any given search. Actually most business owners seem to get that, what they struggle with is how to make their pages meet these simple requirements.

The best thing to do is to think about the people carrying out the search. If you are an Waterloo based Executive Health Clinic and your keyword research has found lots of people search for Executive Health Waterloo for example, ask yourself what these people might want to find. Ask yourself what kind of resource you could build that would encourage other sites to link to yours, ask yourself what you would want to find in the search results pages when carrying out this search.

SEO is a challenging subject for some to grasp but the principles are pretty simple.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask your questions on this post, or reach me on twitter @stuarttrier

Delivering Customers – changes the foot print of the Orthotics & Foot Care industry in Windsor with the launch of Foot Care Institutes new website.

With the launch of the site the landscape in Windsor has dramatically changed. In early June Foot Care Institute launched their new revitalized website, with a focus on promoting their key services.

This clean and simple design impressed both the owners and patients alike.

The results speak for themselves.

Thanks to DC’s comprehensive SEO strategy, Foot Care Institute consistently leads the way in Windsor Orthotics and Foot Care searches, bringing more traffic and more leads to the company.

For new customers the website is as easy to use as it is effective. The site lists the services Foot Care Institute provides Orthotics, Foot Care, Bunion Surgery in Windsor Ontario. While providing calls to action on every page encouraging viewers of the site to become patients. 

Delivering Customers would like to congratulate our client Foot Care Institute on launching their new site and marketing campaign, we are confident this will lead to a dramatic increase in business.

Delivering Customers is a leading web marketing provider. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you! Or get a free website evaluation.

In order to transform your site from a web-brochure to a useful sales funnel you need to understand a few key ideas.

Who are your ideal customers? What are they looking for? What would this customer type into Google if they were looking for a product or service like the one you offer?  There will be obvious key words, and less obvious searched key words.

Make a list of these key words and start to think about publishing pages on your website focused on providing the type of information your potential client would want if they googled this keyword.

Here is an example from a client that is in the Garage Door business. We identified that his ideal client is looking for help with broken garage door openers. Here are some of the keywords we identified.

Once we identified these key words we created what is called a landing page on his site. The purpose of the landing page is to answer whatever potential questions this ideal customer might have related to his product or service. In my clients case this revolved around garage door openers.

Getting the customer to the page is only part of the goal the next is capturing their information or moving them along your sales funnel.

Once they are on the page you need to create as little resistance as possible. Meaning give them the information they want, answer the question they have in their mind, and making it as easy as possible to interact with you.

Generally we want them to land on what is called a landing page. Here is the Garage Door Example - This page deals with garage door openers. It is simple, straight forward, and has a few calls to action.

At the top right of the page it has a toll free number clearly marked.

As an alternative we provide a form that allows the visitor to provide contact information so the company can follow up with them.

By taking these few steps and building many opportunities for your customers to find your website you can turn it in to a sales machine. 

My client Pop Up Canopy, a Canadian distributor that stocks Pop Up Canopies.  One of the first conversations I had with the president of the company was around the keywords that may be important to his target market. In other words what key word phrases were potential customers looking for when they were searching for products he carries?

I recently took on a new project for SoftSigns.com, a Canadian distributor for the EZ UP brand.  One of the first conversations I had with the president of the company was around the keywords that may be important to his target market. In other words what key word phrases were potential customers looking for when they were searching for products he carries?

He had some thoughts, as did some of his key employees. In addition to writing down there thoughts we ran a key word search to see what terms were actually being searched in Canada. While they were ranked well for EZ UP Ontario and various other key word phrases they weren’t showing up for EZ UP Canada.  

For this particular product line EZ UP Canada is the most searched key word, approximately 300 searches get done on a weekly basis for EZ UP Canada and most of them are done by potential customers looking to find a Canadian distributor of this iconic brand. This one key word phrase represents a huge opportunity for SoftSigns.com.

Our goal is ensure that when potential customers Google - EZ UP Canada the search engine returns our client as one of the top listings.

The small investment required to rank well for this key word will easily be recouped in additional sales.

Let me know if you want advice on keywords for your company. 

You are not alone many entrepreneurs ask themselves these same questions.

Whenever I meet with an entrepreneur I am always curious to find out how much of their current business is being driven from their website? Is their site a part of their overall lead and sales strategy or just a static brochure that is rarely updated.

If you fall into this category that is great news for you as it means you have a lot of opportunity to increase your sales and make your business grow.

Invest 5 minutes and visit google to do some basic market research in your area. Are you a “Mortgage Broker Ottawa Ontario” or a “Bed Bugs Exterminator Toronto Ontario”, you get the point. Type in the likely search words your clients would use to locate a company selling your particular product or service.

Do you show up on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Bing? If not the good news is you have a very clear answer to “How to increase my sales?” and “Make my business grow?” 

Click the free website evaluation form on the side of this post and you will learn - How you are doing compared to your local competitor, and 3 things you can do now to immediately dominate your local market. 

We recently were asked by Maurice Verrelli President and founder of Axxess Payments to design a new website and online marketing strategy for his payment processing company.

After discussing the project with Maurice we agreed on a budget and strategy.

The first step was to design his new website and make sure we came up with persuasive content to educate his potential customers on the wide variety of products and services Axxess Payments can offer.  After a number of revisions both Maurice and his team were happy with the design.

It then came time to put together a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign in order to determine the key words that potential clients were looking for. We set up a campaign and landing pages to track the number of searches conducted in Canada each day for this industry. We continue to tweak the campaigns to improve their conversion rates.

We have spent time optimizing the site with the key words that are relevant to potential customers. Axxess Payments has a wide variety of products and services it can offer to Canadian entrepreneurs looking to save money on their payment processing needs. While payment processing is a competitive field with national big players, we are gaining traction in organic search.

We have submitted the site to the major search engines, started a blog, and we are closely monitoring our increases in traffic with google analytics. Most recently we sent out of our first press release quoting Maurice Verrelli, and announcing his company website.

Maurice clearly laid out his objective for the new site. First he wanted a professional image for all visitors to his site, secondly he wanted it to provide a reference of the full line of services Axxess Payments offers, and lastly he wanted it to capture contact information from potential leads.

We have enjoyed tremendous success with Axxess Paymets, site traffic is up over 1000% in the past 3 months. This has increased exposure for the company and is now Delivering Customers at a lower cost. 

I have been to Starbucks locations all around the world (Asia, Europe, Australia, North America), and over a thousand times (although I haven’t counted I will assume an average of 3 times per week for 10 years = 3*52*10 = 1,560 times). Given this fact, I have the right to write this blog.

Over the past few months, I have been deliberately returning to coffee shops other than Starbucks. The reason is that I prefer to go to places that have easily accessible (i.e. easy login process – code posted on the wall) and free WiFi. And believe it or not, Starbucks Canada, where I live, does not provide easily accessible, free WiFi service to its customers. My user experience at Starbucks has been hampered.    Granted you can log into their “hotspot” WiFi, but you have to pay, or have to be a customer of a certain telecommunications provider.  So, in my view, that is not an easy log-in process, and excludes the majority of us.

This is not a boycott. I am not stating that I will not go to Starbucks.

But I am saying that I will go to Starbucks less frequently, due to the fact that Starbucks Canada is not providing this service that has HUGE VALUE, and that, in my understanding, COSTS VERY LITTLE TO PROVIDE.

Some small things like this might destroy a smaller competitor, and they won’t realize until it’s too late. Fortunately for Starbucks, that likely will not be the case.

If I have a choice between a coffee shop that has easily accessible and free WiFi service, and one that doesn’t, I will choose the one that does. And I’m sure that I am not the only one.

THE BOTTOM LINE: In businesses across the globe, there are opportunities to do many seemingly little things, at small costs, that greatly enhance the user experience. I will take this as a learning experience to both my clients and to my own businesses.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the major buzzwords today, specifically as a means to get a step ahead of your competition. Concurrently, there is so much misinformation out there, and over 95% of the people (this is my estimate) do not really have a thorough understanding of it.

When an small to mid-sized enterprise (SME) is looking to increase their visibility and brand recognition online, SEO is the first thing that should be looked at and implemented. Some of the main reasons are:
• It forces you to look at your content through the eyes of the customer
• It forces you to identify and serve your target market (s)
• If done properly, you WILL see returns
• It forces you, if seen from the proper perspective, to take a long-term approach to your brand equity, your communications, and your strategy

When I read blogs, or when I talk with people, the major question that most people have is they do not know how much to pay for SEO. For good SEO and for a significant, qualitative increase in online image and visibility, the following must be done:
• Thorough customer analysis
• Goal-setting tied to your customer analysis
• Keyword Analysis tied to your customer analysis
• Thorough analysis of current website, if one exists
• Content must be built
• Competitive analysis
• Blog analysis and blog creation
This list is not exhaustive, but for the sake of brevity i will stop there.

A lot of the tools are available, and should be used, for example:
• Keyword Search tools
• Inbound Link tools
• Widgets
• XML Sitemaps
This list is not complete, there are a myriad of tools available.

SEO is not something that should be taken lightly, nor is it something that can be done thoroughly for $200 or for $50 a month. Therefore, how you approach SEO and who does your SEO should never be solely a price-driven decision. The best approaches to SEO strategy are well rounded, take time to develop, and should be a MANDATORY part of a company’s strategy because:

• The Web is often the first impression that customers’ have of the company, and this is particularly important for those companies that want to get new customers!
• It forces companies to look at themselves and their marketing in a constructive, customer-centric manner.

SEO can be done internally, that is an undisputed fact, and if anyone tells you that it cannot be done internally they do not know what they are talking about. However, if one wants to do SEO internally, you must be able to devote adequate time and resources to it. First of all, they must take the time to learn. My recommendation would be to read Search Engine Optimization: An Hour A Day, by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.

Once you learn about SEO, then you must implement. A significant amount of time must be devoted to the initial stages and research. Then, as the title of the book states; “An hour a day” is a recommended (I would suggest a minimum) time to devote to your SEO. The books’ suggestion can be extrapolated as twenty hours per month or more (assuming weekdays only, and assuming a small-to-mid sized business). If you are going to outsource, keep that time period of twenty hours a month in your mind when looking at the pricing and level of service. The number of hours can vary significantly on a case-by-case basis (given the size of the website, level of service, co-operation between the parties involved, e-commerce, analytics, etc.), but as a baseline, twenty to thirty hours is good for a SME.

If one cannot devote the time or energy into learning the tactics and following up with implementation, one should outsource. The question is not IF you should do SEO, but WHEN; and price should not be your only selection criteria.

Aaron Anticic is with Delivering Customers, a digital marketing agency that builds online campaigns for companies throughout Ontario, Canada.

In 2002 Aaron and I started a mobile retail tool business. The concept was very simple we would import inexpensive tools from Los Angels and sell them in small town Ontario. The business plan called for us to rent a hall, send out a double sided flyer to the full distribution of the local paper, set up our tools to sell in the hall and collect the money.

It didn’t take long for our little $5,000 investment to morph into a multi million dollar business with offices in three provinces. While the idea was unique and our prices were low, our 2 day high velocity retail business benefited from the fact that sending out flyers in the local paper really drew attention.

We were lucky to have stumbled upon this business in late 2001 and we enjoyed 5 years of spectacular growth based on a very simple flyer. We would send it out a week before a blow out sale and hundreds if not 1000’s of people would show up. Over the years we noticed that this method of advertising became less effective.

Drawing 100’s if not 1000’s of people to a sale today would not be as simple as sending out a run of flyers. Newspapers today have become less relevant as more eye balls are turning to the net to find their news. Consequently fewer consumers are seeing the advertising that companies are placing in local papers.

This is a great opportunity for local businesses to realize the changing environment and take the appropriate steps to follow the local eyeballs on line.

It doesn’t matter if you are a dry cleaner, lawyer, plumber, electrician, or seller of gently used baby clothes. 77% of Canadians are online and using the internet and its important that your business has a presence.

How easy is it for your local customers to find you on the internet? Google knows the answer. Are you a plumber in Belleville Ontario? Do a google search for “plumber Belleville Ontario”, does your company name or website show up on the first page? Google, Yahoo, and Bing are quickly becoming the new yellowpages, as people have become more adept at ignoring interruption marketing.

There are plenty of strategies that a small business can use to generate local business from the web. Now is the time to acknowledged the drop in return on your traditional advertising and embrace the new rules of marketing.

Stuart Trier is with Delivering Customers, a digital marketing agency that builds online campaigns for companies throughout Ontario, Canada.

You have to know how to calculate it.

As management guru Peter Drucker has said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

What does a customer cost to acquire?
How much is a customer worth?

Let’s walk through an easy example so you can figure this out for your company.

Bob runs a College Pro Painters business to earn some extra money during the summer.

Let’s figure out what Bob currently spends to acquire a new customer?

Advertising Costs——————-$1750

Signs———————————–$500

Cold callers————————–$1,000

Yellow pages————————-$1250

Total———————————–$4500

So Bob’s monthly budget for marketing is $4500. For those of you that run something a bit more complicated than a painting business other items to include in your total marketing costs would be, flyers, display ads, sales team wages, sales expenses, trade shows, signs, and anything else you spend on a monthly basis to find new customers.

Bob brings in about 30 new customers a month and generates $22,500 in revenue.

He prices his job so that his materials (paint, brushes, primer, etc) equal 20% of revenue

Now we can figure out a lot of key numbers in Bob’s business.

Bob is currently spending $4500 to bring in 30 new customers a month. Which means his customer acquisition costs is ($4,500 / 30 ) = $150 per customer

On average each customer generates $750 in revenue and $600 in gross revenue. (Gross revenue = Total Revenue – Cost Of Goods Sold which in this case is his paint and supplies)

Bob has a few painters that works for him for $25 / hr, and each job takes approximately 15 hrs to complete.

So Bob earns $175 profit per job. ($750 – $150 – $375 = $175)

We can now answer all of the key questions about Bob’s College Pro Painter empire.

What does a customer cost Bob to acquire? $150

How much is a customer worth? $175

Now that Bob knows what his customer acquisition costs are and how much his average customer is worth he is able to accurately compare his current marketing methods to any new ideas or concepts he wants to try.

Figure out what you pay to acquire a new customer, how much profit each customer generates for you.

We will be posting case studies of companies we have worked with to implement marketing and social media campaigns. We will share the strategies we have used to lower customer acquisition costs. In the meantime, if you have any questions please feel free to email me at strier at deliveringcustomers dot com

Stuart Trier is with Delivering Customers, a digital marketing agency that builds online campaigns for companies throughout Ontario, Canada.

The tools that Google has made available to everyone have created a whole world of opportunities for businesses and the web; the exploitation of those opportunities depends on the owners and managers of these businesses embracing these (somewhat) new technological tools.

The technological tools that I am talking about are Google Analytics, AdWords, Website Optimizer, AdSense, etc. There is a whole suite of tools that businesses now have at their fingertips that will enable them to participate more effectively within the new digital economy. Or as David Meerman Scott says, participate according to the New Rules.

When I speak with people about these tools, their reactions are as diverse as the businesses they represent. Some people get an initial buzz, and feel that these tools will transform their businesses overnight; some feel that the new tools are all hype, and others feel overwhelmed by it all.

At this point, relatively few businesses are fully taking advantage of these tools that are available. But the companies that are exploiting these tools properly have a competitive advantage vis-à-vis those companies that aren’t utilizing these tools. These web strategies of optimization and PPC advertising, etc., will soon be the norm; therefore these initial, easy advantages won’t last long.

The key thing that small to mid-sized businesses must first realize, when looking to embark on a company wide web analytics and marketing strategy, is that good things (results) come to those who wait. Companies must realize that there will be setbacks and failures along the way, but as Avinash Kaushik says, the great part about these tools is that it helps companies LEARN TO FAIL FASTER. The key thing to note is that REAL results will take time, work, adjustment, and dedication to the campaigns. If the company does not know this prior to utilizing these tools, they may drop these tools quickly.

Companies must look at the web as a strategic component to developing their brand and increasing their customer base. All that is needed then is the patience and effort to make it happen.

The tools are now available. Small to mid sized businesses can utilize tools that were previously reserved only for the largest companies. The choice is yours.

Aaron Anticic is with Delivering Customers, a digital marketing agency that builds online campaigns for companies throughout Ontario, Canada.