McIntosh Marketing Blog

The controversy has been raging for years. Many business owners are sold on the idea of doing all of their Search Engine Optimization in house.  Many others choose to outsource this work.

Which viewpoint is correct?

I completely disagree with those that promote that all businessmen do their own optimizing. I think the proponents of this idea are absolutley and totally wrong!

At first glance it will appear to be an activity that anyone can do in their spare time.  It seems that way because that is how many so called Internet Marketing “experts” run their businesses, part time!

One simple example…Article Marketing. It takes the writing and publishing of a few hundred articles a month (all with unique content not the same article) to a large number of article sites not just one or two article sites.

That task alone cannot be done in your spare time. It is also an activity that is usually not delivered by part timers simply because of the sheer work involved. Yet, it needs to be done to create valuable high quality backlinks to your website.

Most of the part time optimizers are one man operations or very small mom and pop “otimizers”. They can’t possibly do this type of activity for any number of clients either. Hence the part time nature of their operations.

As a business owner it is vital that you have your attention focused on the delivery or the execution of your services. Of course you must also make sure that there are marketing actions executed daily to ensure the appropriate volume new business coming through the front door.

The problem is you only have 2 hands.

Hiring a professional Online Marketing Expert as an employee of your company is expensive. They should be!

Note: If the person you just hired is working for low wages as an Internet Marketing Expert, drop him quick! Professionals that can execute and deliver are NOT CHEAP.

There is the fact that you can do some SEO yourself. As long as you get all the needed ations done regularly, week after week, month after month.

There are many people that do know a lot, that are experts in Online Marketing. Bill McIntosh is one of the few that not only is an expert in the field but Bill actually coaches and instructs many of the best Internet Marketers in the field today.

His team is available to you now !

Look it is simple. You aren’t going to hire a part time legal person to review your legal issues, you outsource to an attorney. You don’t hire a part-time guy to come in and fix your kids teeth at home using your tools. You go to a dentist.

The same thing applies to delivering Effective Internet Marketing Services and driving in new customers and clients to your business.

Outsource the activity to a Pro and get the results you are looking for.

Article by Carlos Gamez

Director of Business Development

McIntosh Marketing

Image by evelynishere

In a recent conversation I was told that the person was “testing” SEO to see if it worked.

They were very serious about their project and quite set on it. I queried the them about what they meant by “testing” but received no reply.

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, does work for some people and not for others and here is why:

Search Engine Optimization WORKS. If it is done correctly.

It works if the research has been done thoroughly and the program is intelligently written and if the plan is actually executed.

From my experience SEO fails because it is not truly understood to begin with.

It fails where the parties involved believe it is a lot of “tricks” and sneaky Blackhat activity only.It fails because it is not done regularly and consistently over time.

The subject of Marketing is not clearly understood to begin with and when you then add that misunderstood subject to the Internet, another grossly misunderstood subject, you get real confusion and weird strange ideas are created and spread around.

SEO…Search Engine Optimization is simply the actions you take (on the Internet) to get your business known about.  In other words it is Marketing that you do using the Internet.

Anyone can do it successfully. Anyone !

You will hear many people say things like, “I tried SEO and it didn’t work.” or “I did SEO for 2 weeks and nothing happened!”

Those are statements from people that DO NOT KNOW WHAT SEO IS OR HOW TO CORRECTLY IMPLEMENT IT.

That is the simple truth. SEO WORKS!

The apparent failure isn’t the SEO failing it is the people attempting the SEO that are failing.

It is being done by amateurs or people armed with half truths and the latest “gimmick” and no real true understanding.

Your SEO efforts have failed for two reasons:

1. You did not take the correct actions and/or

2. You did not continue the program long enough.

At McIntosh Marketing we have experts ready to execute an SEO program that will work for you.

The Internet is still growing by leaps and bounds daily and your future in business will be dictated by the actions you take online.

So my friend take effective action!

Article by Carlos Gamez
Director of Business development
[email protected]

Image by Ogimogi

According to Google, “create great content and they will come”.

Michael Gray disagrees.

As Michael explains, creating great content will produce more traffic, but not a rate that you may like. He has track record of using Digg and Stumbleupon to send hundreds of thousands of visitors, but Google only sent a couple thousand.

This is why we recommend some form of an Internet Marketing Plan. Going it alone is hard and long – and getting a good Marketing company to point you in the right direction is huge.

Personally, I am not reading Michael’s post as fact since there are a lot of questions I would ask of what he did. We have found that leaving one point off our 30 point checklist could sabotage an entire marketing plan. But the points he brings are worth thinking about.

When an OC small business breaks the list of top 500 e-commerce websites, it causes one to pause as to what generated their success. Such was the case with local small business, Air & Water, Inc. in Santa Ana, CA. Taken from their website, this says so much:

“Founded in 2002, Air & Water has quickly grown to become one of the internet’s largest independent appliance retailers. Since the inception of the company, we’ve helped tens of thousands of customers all across the country with their heating and cooling needs.  In addition to our website, we also operate storefronts on online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.  Air & Water, Inc. is also recognized as a trusted online retailer by some of the web’s biggest online shopping compare sites such as Bizrate, Shopping, and NexTag.”

Air & Water Inc. has developed a strong and savvy web presence from conducting some very consistent and SEO, customer-friendly tactics that has contributed to their success:

• They continue to write great content in the form of articles, which differentiates them from their competition.
• Developing niche markets with a broad offering of products and distribution channels.
• Carefully watching their traffic and developing content that will drive more hits and sales.

This bring-and-mortar business demonstrates that even during tough economic times, proactive, intelligent and effective web marketing can become the marketing strategy that develops more business and profits.

Story inspired by The Orange County Register.

Image courtesy of www.toputop.com

When times get tough, adjust. When markets take down turn, do niche marketing. This is what one Orange County small biz owner is doing to succeed and move forward in 2010.

As you can see in this article that appeared in The Orange County Register, Jow Chiodo or of JB Plastics in Santa Ana, CA is moving forward with what most small businesses do not do effectively and rapidly: Adjust.

When the environment changes, and a recession hits, many studies over the decades have shown that those companies that adjust, and heavily market where the profits lay, are the ones that survive the turbulent times and move forward. And eventually even expand substantially, as now there is less competition that take similar actions in their business plan or in the niche marketing.

Part of the adjustment is retooling your small business marketing plan and strategy. And that most definitely includes how to engage in effective online marketing.

Small business websites allow one to reach into niche markets for very low cost. This is done through blogging, video marketing and other guerrilla marketing online tactics that can reach highly specialized markets that are being under sold or simply outright ignored. The other benefit to utilizing these various internet marketing tools is that you can engage in these frequently and for low cost.

Picture courtesy of http://www.myfreewallpapers.net

This blog article is written for the small business owner or entrepreneur who has some idea of internet marketing and social media, but still needs some small business marketing help. While this is not a complete list of all that must be done to do online marketing, it is a list of the most basic elements that will allow you to move on to the next actions that you will need to initiate to be successful.

To keep this simple, I want to give you a checklist of how to build a web site that has the basics and is a great web site for what you need to get started. Future blog posts will expand upon and examine further actions to take to drive more traffic to your website.

1. You have a domain name that has possesses keywords and/or the company name. If you have not named your company as of yet, then taking keywords into account can be an advantage when making your final choice. In the old days, getting your company’s name to start with an “A” in its first word was an advantage, in terms of being found in the phone book. Now that the phone book has gone the way of the Dodo, you need to consider having key search terms within your company name. For instance, if you were starting a florist shop in Los Angeles, naming your shop “LA Florist” would not be a bad idea. Easy to remember and at the time of this post is searched for over 22,00 times per month. Just ensure that www.laflorist.com is available. (Which it is not)

2. Get your website built on a WordPress format. Why? You will want to blog and more and more big companies, like UPS and The Wall Street Journal Magazine are utilizing the WordPress format for their website, which allows you to blog and is highly SEO friendly.

3. Have your online legal in order. Have a “Terms of Use” and “Privacy Policy” pages that simple are links at the bottom of your web pages. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you should still consult one. If you will not take my advice to seek legal assistance, at least get these two pages linked within your website with basic terms and policies. Playing by the rules and showing that you do is good online business and is SEO friendly in the eyes of top search engines.

4. Put your phone number clearly at the top in large type. If you want more calls then make it easy to find it and see it. Again, top of the page and make it large enough. It still amazes me how often I have to search endlessly for their phone number so as to be able to contact the person.

5. Have an “About Us” page. This seems embarrassing to have to mention, but you have to tell people who you are, what your brand stands for and what functions it performs or products/services that it sells. Tell a story, but do not be boring or technical. Keep it interesting, informative, pithy and all on one page.

6. Call to action is a crucial element for your business web site. You have to tell people what to do. This can be done through video, through a free offer or simply telling them within the copy of the website itself. Remember those late night ads selling you knives and car wax? They told you how much to spend and how to order and then told you want to do. Those ads made millions. Tell people what to do and make it clear and simple.

7. Keep your design easy on the eye and avoid Flash at all costs. Flash slows down your site, can be a distraction and is not what you really want for a small business website.

There is much more to know, but here you have the basics for building an effective website for any small business or startup.

If you follow the latest online buzz, you might have read here and there rumors about Google Me, which is supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook. Facebook being the only giant able to compete with the leading search engine — a couple months ago, for the first time Facebook passed Google in terms of visitors — it isn’t surprising that Google might want to take a bite out of the social market. Of course, nothing is sure yet, but every day somebody seems to come out from the bushes to confirm this is true.

Should you pay attention to these rumors? As an Internet marketer or website owner, the answer is undoubtedly Yes! Why? Because, whatever  Google’s social network might be, be sure that Internet marketers will jump into it to take advantage of it as soon as possible.  So, with social media being such an important part of online marketing strategies, you want to be sure to have the first-mover advantage to, at least, beat competitors in your industry to the punch.

Small Biz marketing success is dependant upon being found and building trust.  And in today’s economic climate, building your brand must entail a strong internet presence. As you may have discovered, simply having a web site is not enough. Yet, 90% of the small businesses in existence that have a web site are not engaging in the most effective method to building more traffic to it: Blogging.

Your company blog is not only a free method in which to build original content to your web site, a must be done SEO strategy for online marketing success, but it really becomes a long-term strategy to reach out and develop many of the potential niche markets that exist within your business.

Additionally, there are some simple steps to expose your company blog to more and more customers, as well as increasing your blog’s value as a B2B website. Here are some helpful marketing tips to gain maximum SEO potential for your blog:

• On all company emails, include links to your company blog.
• Ensure that your blog is listed within the blog option on LinkedIn.
• Ensure that your blog is prominently featured on your company Facebook fan club.
• Distribute your blog postings to all the various social media outlets via Ping.fm.
• Get your blog listed in the dozens of blog directories, such as Technorati.
• In whatever you print and publish off-line, such as letterhead, business cards, etc. include your blog address.
• Blog at least twice a week. Get an SEO expert to help you find the key words and longtail words to get best results.
• Watch this video and learn even more!

The basic idea of the Long Tail is that you can capitalize on more specific, less competitive and less searched keywords in order to be successful.  The general idea is that you can generate say 10,000 visitors to your site, using 7,000 different Long Tail keywords as opposed to 10,000 visitors from a single term.  The Long Tail is not a specific number or a specific range.  It doesn’t have anything to do with the length of the keyword or how many words are in a keyword phrase.  It is variable and changes depending on what you are trying to accomplish.  The gist of it is, you can get close to as much, or sometimes more traffic from the Long Tail as you can get from the more general terms.  And here’s the best part: Most often, the Long Tail keywords will give you better targeted and more interested visitors.  And that means they buy more!

Let’s do an example and take a look at the following image:

*NOTE: The keywords, placements and lines are all arbitrary and are placed for illustrative purposes only.

As you can see, I am using real estate as my example, however this applies to every market and niche.  Let’s say you are a real estate agent in Boise, Idaho and you want to attract interested, potential home buyers.  If you try and rank in Google for the term “Real Estate”, you are setting yourself up to fail.  That term has millions of searches and millions of competitors, and the top rankings are going to go to huge companies with huge budgets.  Also, someone searching for “real estate” isn’t necessarily an interested buyer, it’s most likely someone doing some research or “just looking”.  The same as above would go for “Real Estate Agent”, and even though you’re getting more specific, “Homes for Sale” is still a very broad term with a lot of competition.  Ok, now let’s look at “Help to buy a home”.  That is a really good term.  The person seems pretty interested and there is much less competition for this term (although there is also less search volume).  However, this is a term you can probably start to rank for and actually get some traffic (SOME traffic on a Long Tail term is better than NO traffic for a general term).  Going even further, and even longer, “Buy a new home in Boise, ID” is a great term as it is someone looking to buy a home in your area.  That is a pretty good term and you can probably do very well with it.  However, you are still going to be competing with most other real estate agents in Boise for that term.  Ok, now let’s take “Relocating and need a home in Boise Idaho”.  Let’s say for example that only 20 people a month search for this term.  This is a GREAT term for our ficticious real estate agent!  Why is it so great?  Well, for one thing, not many people are going to be targeting that term because it doesn’t get a lot of searches and doesn’t seem worthwhile.  But even better than that, if you have this term targeted and you are obviously the leader for this term in the search results, you are likely going to get 10-15 very interested people calling you every month!  And if you have 100 terms like this, you could have over 1.000 people calling you, interested in buying a home.  If you close only 1% of those people, you’d sell 10 homes a month!

I highly reccomend you read the original Wired article, written by Chris Anderson.  It gives a complete picture of the theory of the Long Tail, and is in my opinion one of the most important articles written about our digital world.

Sooner or later someone will complain. And now, it just may go viral beyond your typical public relations crisis management strategy that you were taught ten years ago. And no one knows that more in 2010 than BP. Without a doubt, social media, bloggers and online reviews with companies such as Yelp, can be a major influence on how people perceive you and whether or not they choose to purchase or associate with your brand. You must have a public relations reputation management plan in place in today’s online world. More importantly, you need to have a proactive online PR plan in action, way before any possible complaint or cataclysm hits your shores. This starts with vigilant monitoring of what is being said about your brand.

Monitoring the reviews about you in blogs and other online review sites is a critical component of public relations and reputation management for any company or prominent person. Every company should start this process by subscribing to RSS feeds of search results on their company name from blog and news search engines like Technorati, set up a Google Alerts account or use the BlogPulse conversation tracker.

According to a report by MarketingCharts.com, second only to word-of-mouth, online reviews are the second most influential factor in whether or not a person chooses to do business with someone. And those who do comments are extremely active in that only 9% of the web users are contributing 80% of the content within the internet.

But there is an upside to this perilous story. Social media allows two-way communication so that you can interact with detractors and those who have become dissatisfied with your service or brand. At least the response is visible so as to be able to detect and rapidly address this problem, just like computer giant Dell had  accomplished, as clearly illustrated in the video accompanying this blog post.

Social media, interacting with bloggers and even listening to the oft critical online reviews can be a positive catalyst for dialogue, addressing internal customer service issues otherwise undetectable and even small points that allow one to allow a better relationship with your core customer base. Ensure that you have an online PR plan that monitors what is being said, as well as having a proactive approach to delivering powerful messages to reinforce what is exciting, positive and relative about your brand.