A special guest post by Jayme Thomason…my new partner in crime.
I don’t know about where you live, but in Kansas City, tow truck drivers seem fairly aggressive in their “customer acquisition efforts.” Drive on any highway in Kansas City and you’ll see them. Perched on frontage roads and sitting in parking lots ready to come to the rescue of motorists in need.
I’m not an expert in the industry by any means, so maybe it takes this aggressiveness to make a living as a tow truck driver. Some might see this laying-in-wait strategy as sort of vulture-like, waiting to pounce and take advantage of people in need. Or, you could view tow truck drivers as the cowboys on the white horses, coming to the rescue. However you look at it, I think we can learn a couple things about content marketing from these savers of stalled cars.
1. They know exactly where their customers are and that’s where they hang out.
2. Because they hang out where their customers are, they’re ready to jump into action when they see a need.
Tow truck drivers know who their target audience is, mostly rush-hour commuters on highly traveled roadways. So that’s where you’ll find them hanging out. Do we have as good a handle on who (specifically) our target market is, and where (exactly) they hang out online? If not, here are three places to look for them:
Blogs – do keyword searches for blogs within the industry in which your customers work and start reading the top 5. You need to educate yourself on what your target customers are reading so you know where your content can add value.
Forums – forums are a great place to look for the “pain” of your target market. Listen for specific issues, questions and problems and then create valuable content that addresses those things.
Social Media Communities – sites like Facebook and Twitter are great places to find out what your customers care about and what they’re interested in, in their own words. Listen for those interests and words and then create content for each.
So what can we learn from our tow-truck-driving friends of the highway? When approaching our content marketing efforts we need to be more aggressive about finding out where our customers are hanging out online, pay attention to their needs and jump to their aid with relevant content. Approaching content marketing with this type of customer-centered strategy could have an amazing impact on your business.
Imagine your customer saying, “Wow, I was just commenting about how hard it is to hire good HR people and then company x posted a great blog about just that topic! They must be paying attention!”
This is what we’re all trying to accomplish with our content marketing efforts – one relationship and solved problem at a time.
You keep hearing that your company needs to be blogging.
You’ve even read articles (here) about why you should have a blog. And these articles make sense and spell out the benefits that a blog can provide in terms of helping you market yourself on the web. But how do you get started? If you’re ready to pull the trigger, what are the things you need to consider so that your blog is not set up for failure?
Let’s break this process down into three key considerations: developing your blog content strategy, blog setup and ongoing content development. Ready to dig in?
I’ve been presenting on social media marketing quite a bit around Kansas City and it’s neat to see so many folks getting excited about the opportunities that these tools and technologies provide. But I’ve noticed something that’s consistently happening during my presentations. As soon as I throw out the word “blogging”, I see eyes roll and shoulders drop throughout the audience. Geez….You’d think I was a Yellow Pages advertising rep at a search engine optimization conference.
For non-web-savvy people and businesses, the negative connotations of blogs and blogging are still top of mind. Do any of these sound familiar?
Aren’t blogs just personal online diaries?
If I start one, what the heck would I write about?
I’d rather not create more work for myself or my business…
As a website developer, I am regularly talking with B2B clients about the various bells and whistles available for their websites. One particular whistle, adding a search function, can be a very powerful tool for a website, but it often gets left on the cutting room floor when budgets are tight.
I do my best to explain the benefits of site search to clients, but in the heat of the moment, I inevitably forget to mention a few key selling points. Here’s a more thorough explanation with examples that should help you see that having a site search is really a no brainer.
The 6 Reasons Why Your Website Needs a Search Function
People are lazy – Search engines have taught us to search. If visitors see a search box on your site, most will go straight to it rather than having to use their brain and traverse your navigation bar. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever been given the responsibility of designing/developing a new marketing piece (website, brochure, etc.) only to have your design or content ideas trampled by an upper-level executive who really has no clue? That’s a HiPPO, the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.
As a website developer, I tend to run into HiPPOs a lot. And unfortunately, there are a lot of bad websites out there that have been designed based solely on the siloed, subjective opinions of upper-level management. I know the same can be said for logo and print designs as well. Ask any graphic designer and I’d bet they have a slew of designs that their clients “should have chosen”…But I digress.
Video is the fastest-growing form of marketing on the Web. eMarketer estimates that in the next four years marketers’ spending on online video advertising will reach $4.6 billion, more than seven times the amount spent in 2008. And no wonder. Video lets you demonstrate your idea — with action, with humor, with the credibility of a great presenter. Ask yourself: Which would you rather do? Read 5-6 more paragraphs? Or watch a 90-second video that visually explains the topic?
Just in the last two months, I’ve engaged in six video projects with my clients. When you take a minute to think about your business from a video perspective, there is so much sitting right under your noses. For instance, I encouraged a real estate client to do a quick YouTube search on “olathe real estate”. From the quality of the resulting videos, my client was quickly encouraged to undertake his own video effort.
When I give presentations on internet marketing, Web 2.0 and social media, very rarely do I have an audience that understands the concept of RSS (Real Simple Syndication). There might be a few that raise their hands when I ask the RSS question, but even then I notice the worried looks on their faces that say, “Please don’t ask me to explain it.”
According to an October 2008 report from Forrester, consumer adoption of RSS is only 11%, while roughly 50% of the interactive marketing community is using it. I guess it’s pretty safe to attribute this to the tech-savvy nature of internet marketers, but as mainstream marketers and consumers learn about RSS’ many benefits and get more comfortable with the initial set-up requirements, I believe adoption will really take off. So, I’m going to take on a little of the educational burden and try to explain the RSS concept with an analogy of a technology that has seen much more widespread adoption…
Quick Series Recap…Part One was a discussion regarding personalized search and how search engines are factoring in your location and past search habits to return search results that will be more relevant to you personally. If you are keeping tabs on your website’s SERPs, you may be surprised how your positions will vary across multiple searchers.
Part 2: Bounce Rates Will Affect Your Search Engine Rankings
Another new ranking factor that Google is starting to integrate is bounce rates. A “bounce” is determined when a visitor lands on one page of your site and then leaves. Web analytics software programs track these occurrences and tally them up to establish your site’s “bounce rate”. If people are consistently landing on your site and then bailing, but they stick around and peruse your competitor’s site, what would we logically surmise from this situation? Their site must be more engaging. Google is going to give them credit for that and rank them higher. Can you blame them?
Google has done a spectacular job of flooding the web world with their free Google Analytics (GA) platform. On the website owner side of the coin, GA offers a plethora of analysis and reporting tools that provides an enormous amount of insight into how a website is performing. On the other side of the coin, Google is storing and mining all that data. And since GA has been so widely adopted, Google is keeping tabs on hundreds of thousands of sites.
I’m a GA user. They know my site’s bounce rate. I can only hope my bounce rate is helping my rankings.
Might your bounce rate be negatively affecting your rankings? Are you monitoring your bounce rate? Need help?
Last week a sales rep from a local printing company walked in to my office to pimp his company’s “superior” printing services. I gave him a few minutes and he proceeded to give me his pitch, walk me through his large list of printing capabilities, and show me a smattering of past print jobs that included an impressive mix of brochures, folders and binders with fancy die cuts, foil stamping and intricate embossing.
His sales presentation was actually very good and I imagine that he does a great job of new business development for his company. As I walked him out the door, he handed me his card and some cool branded notepads and I told him that I’d keep him in mind on future print jobs.
Upon sitting back down at my computer, I grabbed his card and typed in their website address. This is where things went down hill.
The Not-So-Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Now let me preface this by saying that I’m a marketing consultant/website developer by trade. So my critical eye for proper website design and usability is a bit more sensitive than the next guy. But wow, this company’s website was REALLY bad. Their design looked remedial, severely dated and unorganized. Their logo looked completely different than the logo on their business card and notepads. The content was poorly written. There were very few images of printing samples. And upon scanning their printing capabilities page, several of the services that the sales person had mentioned were nowhere to be found.
I threw his card in the circular file (the trash). I kept the notepads.
This situation serves as a good example of the vital role that a website plays in your company’s overall sales and marketing strategies. It is critical that your website convey a consistent brand image, perceived value and sales message for those soft-selling opportunities that happen when you’re not present.
A Quick Test for Your Website
Can a website visitor get a thorough understanding of your bread-and-butter product/service and reach your contact info page in two clicks or less?
Is your website design and content consistent with the quality of your company and its products/services?
If you looked at your website and sales materials/brochures side by side, are they conveying a consistent brand image?
If your salesperson were to read aloud your website’s content word-for-word during a sales call, would they close the sale?
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. If you answered “NO” to any of the questions above, your website probably needs some work.
A Marketing Strategy Lesson
Back to the printing company with the horrid website. Let’s say they’ve come to their senses and hired me to revamp their website. In our initial meeting, I would do a quick audit to learn about the different strategies and tactics they use to develop new business. Next, I would find that they execute a nice mix of advertising, sales and local tradeshows, and since they are a printer, they have very nice brochures. They even do educational sessions on the latest printing techniques through their local Chamber of Commerce.
When I ask about their website, they say, “It’s a low priority and we’ve always worried about the cost.”
With so many opportunities to utilize the online tools to market your business and sell your wares, it’s a shame that so many companies view the web as their last priority. And some don’t even realize the amount of clients and dollars that are going to their competitors who have made an appropriate investment.
5 Ways to Get Your Website on the Same Page
Perceived Value – First impressions are everything. In the first few seconds of a site visit, your website’s design quality and content layout is subliminally communicating your company’s value to the visitor. If your site’s design quality is poor or unorganized, your company will be perceived as poor quality and unorganized, and thus, the visitor bounces.
� How to Get On the Same Page:Work with a professional website designer who can help you design your site’s look and feel to match (or exceed) the quality of your company, products and services.
Brand Consistency – Your company’s brand is what people think of you. And whether people notice a magazine ad, see your booth at a tradeshow or find your website, it’s vital that you present a clear and consistent sense of who you are at every customer touch point.
� How to Get On the Same Page: Everything you put in front of a customer needs to look and sound consistent. This means every ad, every brochure, your website, corporate identity elements, etc. An integrated campaign works wonders when designed professionally by a single designer or agency.
Message/Content Quality – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…content is king. Keeping your website updated with fresh, high-quality, informative content positions you as an expert in your field. And people want to do business with experts.
� How to Get On the Same Page: Hiring a professional content developer/copywriter is a great way to ensure that your message is delivered in a high-quality fashion, and with a consistent voice. Have the copywriter sit down with your salespeople to discuss the most effective messaging to help convert your visitors into buyers.
Self Promotion: Be Your Own Cheerleader – If you’re not promoting your latest happenings (new product/service offerings, company news, upcoming educational sessions, tradeshows, etc.), no one else is going to. But don’t get caught with a site that is difficult or costly to update. Nothing screams “dinosaur” like seeing a news page where the last news item was from two years ago.How to Get On The Same Page: If your salespeople are out there telling customers about a new product or an upcoming educational session, your website should be doing the same. Frequent site updates tell customers that you are an active company that is on the move, as well as providing new content that serves as food for search engine spiders.
Track Your ROI – It baffles me that companies will spend thousands of dollars each year on marketing tactics that make tracking your return very difficult (a.k.a. advertising, direct mail, brochures, etc.), but they won’t spend a few thousand dollars to build a decent website with an analytics program that practically gives you a two-way mirror to watch your prospect’s browsing behavior.How to Get On the Same Page: Website analytics, and even e-mail marketing, now offers great, inexpensive tools for customer research and ROI tracking that not only help you calculate ROI, but also help you hone your marketing strategies towards the content/messaging, products and services that bring home the bacon.
The Bottom Line
How many clients has that printing company lost over the years because of their poor, neglected website? Who knows? The bottom line is: they lost my business, and as a marketing consultant, the amount of stuff that my clients print alone could probably pay for a website in a matter of years.
Recently I was approached by a friend to provide an estimate on a new website for his company. During our initial discussions, we talked about his company’s strategic goals, their audiences and the markets in which they serve. Also during our discussion, he mentioned the fact that his boss, the owner of the company, was not necessarily sold on the need to invest much money on the website since referrals are really their primary focus for generating new business.
As the owner of a referral-based small business myself, I certainly understand the notion that making a significant investment in something that may not bring a return might not be a smart move. But as a website developer, I have also seen first hand how a solid website can be the soft-selling opportunity that gives prospects the confidence to pick up the phone and call you.
Sales & Marketing Are a Lot Like Dating
I find it funny how sales and marketing can be a lot like dating. As a confident guy, you feel like you have a lot to offer a girl and most of the time, when in social situations, you can get her digits, which may or may not lead to something. But she hears good things about you from her friends, so she decides to take the next step and try out your goods (bare with me here people).
But what happens when a nice girl, who has just moved into the area and doesn’t know a lot of people, starts her search on the web? She’s busy with her new job and doesn’t really make it out to the social scene. Other than the web, she really has no way of knowing you exist and might just be her soul mate.
So she starts her search and finds a lot to choose from. There are big guys, little guys, and cute guys with lots of flash, but not much substance. She’s determined to find the right guy that “completes her”, but since you didn’t make a proper investment in your website, this match made in heaven may never happen.
There are a few key points within this analogy that I’d like to drive home…
You Can’t Be Everywhere at Once – While your personal networking efforts may always be your number one new business generator, you can’t be everywhere at once. Business growth really starts ramping up when you can duplicate your presence (your brand and your message) in many different, targeted mediums.
Search Engine Optimization/Internet Marketing – The internet is the first place people go to source products and services. And search engines are the driver. Period. In order to capitalize on these buying opportunities, search engine optimization and internet marketing strategies should play an ever-increasing role in your marketing efforts.
Perceived Value – First impressions are everything. If your site’s design and organization are subpar, your company will be perceived as the same, subpar. A proper investment in your website design and website architecture will go along way in raising the perceived value of your company.
Content Expectations – Every time a new visitor stumbles onto your website, they are looking for something, and they expect to find it. If they don’t, they move on. A solid website is one that has been carefully engineered to quickly provide the content that your target customers will need to make a buying decision. And the most effective content is professionally written and delivered as if you were providing it in person.
All Alone on a Saturday Night
Bottom line, it doesn’t necessarily take a big investment to build a solid website that can be found on search engines. The key here is to make an appropriate investment to build a site that can help you reach your goals for business growth. Not investing enough may leave you sitting at home alone on a Saturday night waiting for the phone to ring.
You’ve even read articles (
As a website developer, I am regularly talking with B2B clients about the various bells and whistles available for their websites. One particular whistle, adding a search function, can be a very powerful tool for a website, but it often gets left on the cutting room floor when budgets are tight.
What’s a HiPPO you ask?
Part 5: Got Video?
Part 4: RSS Feeds Will Go Mainstream
Part 2: Bounce Rates Will Affect Your Search Engine Rankings
Last week a sales rep from a local printing company walked in to my office to pimp his company’s “superior” printing services. I gave him a few minutes and he proceeded to give me his pitch, walk me through his large list of printing capabilities, and show me a smattering of past print jobs that included an impressive mix of brochures, folders and binders with fancy die cuts, foil stamping and intricate embossing.
