McIntosh Marketing Blog

I have always been a fan of Sun Tzu’s treatise, The Art Of War.  But when I recently watched the History Channel’s presentation on this world-renowned book, it made me think how most businesses do not apply it.

One would need to watch this TV version of the book as a good start, as well as read the book itself. ( I recommend the James Clavell version)  But one thing stuck out for me above all else and that was to attack an enemy’s weakness despite one’s size. In this case size does not matter. In other words, any guerrilla force can be effective if they are stealthy, consistent and attack the enemy’s weak spots.  And everyone has at least one.

In marketing, I hear to often about how they have a small budget, no sales people, lower revenue and on and on. In other words, they have not realized that they have to adapt and become a guerrilla marketer. And no where else can this be done more effectively than the web. This is because of two major factors:

1. The internet has evened the odds, more than any other factor in business. You may be operating from your home, or even while eating a muffin at your local coffee house, but your potential client cannot tell that by looking at your web site.

2. About 90% of the companies, big and small, are either not utilizing all possible methodologies and tactics or are making big mistakes that is costing them SEO and SEM potentialities.

The guerrilla marketer does not look at what he or she does NOT have. They look at their competition’s weakness and develop practical ways to exploit them.  Most companies do not blog often. This is a weakness. Most companies do not submit articles or use online PR distribution channels. This too is a weakness. There are hundreds of examples of weaknesses to be found.

Based on this knowledge, one can then develop tactics that would make Sun Tzu proud and your banker even happier with all the profits generated with your online marketing campaign.

Ancient knowledge is still as applicable as it was today, even in the world of internet marketing.

Google just announced several changes to their search engine results page.  Many of the new features were already available, but they were not showing by default.  You had to manually turn them on to see them.

When doing search engine optimization analysis for clients we often used some of Google’s optional features to research keywords and topics important to our customers and readers.  Now tools like the “Wonder Wheel” and “Related Searches” are available to everyone with one click just to the left of Google’s regular search results.

Here’s a video from Google showing these changes and where the tools we use for search engine optimization analysis:

Here’s a quick link to Google’s official blog post explaining all about it:

Google’s Blog Post About Changing Search Engine Results

You must follow certain rules in writing a good Google Ad. Many people have made the mistake of stuffing keywords to find out that this strategy can be costly by attracting the wrong types of public who are not inclined to buy or take action.

From our experience with Google AdWords, SEO and SEM, these are key points to follow:

1. Your grammar, spelling and punctuation must be perfect. Capitalize the first word in each sentence.
2. Provide four lines of text with no pictures.
3. Your first line must be limited to 25 characters.
4. Be as specific and precise as possible.
5. Lines two and three must be 35 characters each.
6. Use keywords twice more when possible.
7. Tell users why they MUST have your product. Have a “call to action”.
8. Cite statistical information and facts.
9. When you are selling something, include the price.
10. Use your third line for a “call to action”.
11. Line four is for your destination URL. You must place your URL within the ad itself.
12. Sell your benefits with power words and hot buttons.
13. Write in simple, everyday words.
14. You must utilize keywords within the ad itself.
15. Test, Test and Test. Place many ads simultaneously and test which is best.

Google Ads can be a powerful and profitable means to driving people to your website and to generate a lot of sales and profits. Use them right and you will find that your Google Ads strategy could be your biggest edge against your competition.

The Big Three has meant for decades, “GM, Ford and Chrysler”. But with their problems comes the next evolution of that term, particularly when talking about web marketing, SEO and SEM.

The Big Three in the internet marketing world is Facebook, Google and YouTube. Make it big with these three media giants and you will make it big in business. Let’s be real. Facebook is social media, Google is how you find almost anything and YouTube is the new TV. Hopefully you are gearing your mind-set, your marketing budget and how you interface with the world’s newest Big Three.

I know what most are thinking right now, “A blog is not a web site.”

Yes it is. In fact, for small businesses and entrepreneurs a blog really is the most ideal format in which to have your web site. But more than that, a bog as your web site puts you in control of the most important battle in web marketing: Generating original and  relevant content.

Having spoken to hundreds of small business owners, entrepreneurs, Dr.’s and even those in direct marketing, I know that blogs are not fully understood as to what they are and their power. While most have heard the term and even read them from time to time, most have not really understood what they are and how they are in reality your most effective marketing and PR tool when utilized correctly.

A blog is a a web site, but with some added bonuses. Communicating often and with passion positions you as a thought leader, an authority in the field. Not only that, every time you blog you are casting more fishing lines into the sea of business opportunity. Maybe your next blog will not generate a sale directly, but it starts a conversation, opens the door to a potential referral, or even being quoted in a trade magazine. Blogs set you apart, and the more you do and the more articulate you become, you start to rise the above the others.And studies have shown that the more you do it, this builds a cumulative benefit in that search engines recognize an active blogger, and so you earn higher rankings.

The Blog is short for “Web Log.”  Blogs are independent journals that allows you to not only demonstrate your competence, but it also allows you to add pictures and videos. This is your single biggest opportunity to get your voice heard. In fact, it can be the very anvil in which you can shape public opinion about you, your service or product, or even trends within your industry. Why be a bystander, a mere spectator, when you can be an active contributor to the ideals opinions of what is being commented upon. Blogs allow you to do this better than anything else.

Blogs can be placed into your social media sites, such as Facebook. Versus making a comment, link from Face book right to your blog. This build credibility and drives traffic your web site and blog.

Probably the best place to start is WordPress.org. This allows you to start your blog on a free format that is highly SEO friendly.

Let blogging become a way of communicating, sharing your vision and thus garnering more attention and business.

So many terms, so many things to learn. Just when we started to understand social media (a work in progress), then someone throws out a new term like “social bookmarking.”

Yesterday I was with two friends. One was eating a burger and I talked about delicious. The other person was confused, thinking I was talking about the burger. She did not understand that delicious is a social bookmarking site. http://delicious.com/ This confirmed to my burger eating friend that this is a subject that is not only misunderstood, but has not been evaluated to its importance from a SEO and SEM standpoint.

In short, social bookmarking allows internet users o share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves are not shared, but merely bookmarks that refer them. These are saved as tag and allow people to share bookmarks, just as they would share an email address or a link to a video. It not only makes your bookmarks more manageable, but more sharable. I think sharable is a word.

Social bookmarking also has another benefit. You can specifically target what you want to find when surfing the web. Instead of going into a search engine and attempting to find that needle in a haystack, you can rapidly zero in on the items to what you are searching for.

From an SEO and SEM strategy, social bookmarking is another tool in your arsenal, hardly known about to the newbie or the common business person starting out into the web marketing world. The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance that web site has of being found.

To understand social bookmarking further, watch this video:

Before I knew better, I was sure that many “experts” understood how SEO worked. The word was thrown around so much, that I literally started to feel that I was the only guy in the room who was left behind, stupid and left to rot in SEO hell.

But apparently, I was the guy who was willing to admit it. Reality set in quickly and I discovered that many had been taken advantage of this, because the recently turned SEO expert perceived the weakness in most business people. Most business people delve into their fields so heavily that they consider that the SEO guys do the same. But I have discovered that this is not at all the case.

I recently met up with an internet “expert” who last job was listed as the senior teller at B of A. I guess being a senior teller is more prestigious than a regular one. Anyways, he was about 22, had started to grow some chin hairs and all his Facebook friends looked like the people he hooked up at his last frat party. When it comes to SEO gurus, I either to run into that type of crowd or the recently displaced mortgage broker who now has gone to a seminar or two and is now, Tah Dah, an SEO expert!

Sergio Zyman, a past Marketing Director of Coca-Cola and best-selling author, said it best. These marketing guys sell the voodoo to get business people believing that marketing is all a bunch of arcane information, understood only by special people born with innate marketing know-how and artistic abilities. Baloney! They play this games of charades to get away with the fact that they don’t really know their craft,  and they can’t produce a viable result.

Ok, so I am going to give the secrets away that is going to give these voodoo children a heart attack. All the secrets are published. You know, with Google and in books, like “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott. For regular people that don’t practice voodoo.

Whew, I feel better now.  Like I went to SEO confession.

The expertise does not lie in what you know, but in execution. Doing is worth more than just knowing.