Vision Of Success

Have you ever Googled your name?

If you are a creative professional that is trying to build up your expertise, are you building up your online references? In today’s electronic world, it’s important to build up your name in as many locations as possible.

On a recent Google of my name, there was over 18,000 pages for my name (there is another Lori Osterberg, so I’ve got competition ) I want people to be able to find information about me through a variety of sources - including my name.

I also Google my business name periodically, and see what comes up that way too. What pages are ranking well? What can you do to influence what’s most popular?

In today’s fast pace world, it’s all about exposure. What are you doing to get noticed?

Lori

p.s. Domain names are under $10US per year - do you have your name as a domain name? Get it now.

Remember when businesses could survive without a website?

I’ve been online and had at least one website working for me for over 14 years now. Yet I also know that even though I’ve embraced technology, and couldn’t live without it, there are still people out there that have never created a site for their business. In fact, I currently have a half dozen business cards in front of me without an email address on them.

Let’s look at a few stats for a moment. In 2000, Google indexed about 1 billion pages. By the end of 2004, those numbers had risen to 8 billion. Currently, the latest estimate is that Google has indexed about 14 to 15 billion pages. All of this means people are adding a lot of content to the online arena – and its growing not just in America, United Kingdom and Australia. It’s growing in the far corners of the world.

Doing business online has truly made it to the mainstream. And for all of you that have a website and realize the importance, you’ve probably contemplated the next step. SEO, or search engine optimization is about getting your site ranked and in front of your prospects and your customers. But what most people don’t realize the strategy it takes to make that move.

When you think SEO, what does it bring up in your mind? Getting ranked high in the search engines? Magically appearing in ads? Getting more traffic than you can handle?

All of that may be a part of SEO, but unless you create a strategy, it will never happen.

I recently sat down with Jeff, a business consultant. He created a small website a couple of years ago, and left it up more as a brochure than anything else. It didn’t go into a lot of detail about his business; it just gave a brief explanation about Jeff and his business. He received no business from his site, and he was looking to change that.

After a five-minute analysis, I began to see some definite areas where we could make changes. Jeff had a friend who designed his site. This friend dabbled in web design on the side, and did it more for fun. But he now had a new full time position, two kids – and no time to help Jeff make changes. The first problem was Jeff’s friend had used an old “template” for the design, and all of his keywords were from an entirely different industry!

Next, because Jeff knew very little about SEO, he only had one goal with his online strategy: to be number one under the keyword “business consultant” in Google. He spent a few hundred dollars on Google’s Pay Per Click strategy, but recently gave up when he had little success.

Jeff had never sat down and created an online strategy that would truly help his business. He was guilty of the most common problem made by today’s small business owners – he listened to all the wonderful stories about the power of the Internet, yet he never captured any of it for his business because he never did anything to get his site noticed.

We went on to discuss SEO, and what it means for him, and for any small business owner. SEO means finding out what your clients are looking for online, and being there when they search. You don’t want to show up under “business consultant” if your clients are searching for “small business marketing coach”. And you won’t magically appear under the term “small business marketing coach” unless you work with your content and your marketing to make it happen.

Like it or not, business is competition. And thanks to the Internet, that competition is fierce. In years past, the people in your local market were your competition; but now that field has spread across the globe. For you to get to your target audience, and to capture sales, you have to work at it.

But the good news is it’s actually the best time in history to get started in online marketing. For both service and product businesses, the tools available today are amazing. In just a few short months, with the right planning, we’re able to capture high rankings under the terms most often searched. And it’s not just a big business strategy – even small businesses can create a lot of magic online.

And it all starts with a strategy.

I was reading an article today about the owner of the website Koloroo Like a lot of today’s entrepreneurs, he works a full time job, but decided to build a side business to make some extra cash. So he built a few widgets to use on an iPod - and the rest as they say is history.

So I had to head over and check out the site. Check out his demo at tipkalc This is a great example of how you should be showing your cliens what your product can do. You can interact with the iPod to try it out, and you can see how it works by mousing over the numbers in the layout dissection area.

Does this give you any ideas?

Lori

Once again, the debate rages on as to which is better for business: html or text email.

With a text email, you can get through to more of your clients. Most email accounts allow text email through the spam filters much easier, making text email an almost guaranteed deliverable. Text also looks like a more personalized message, thus may get read more than an html email.

But text does have its downfalls too. You can’t show off your products, or create branding that instantly connects with your website. And if you send too much information in your email, it can tend to run on and on … meaning more readers may close and delete your message.

Html messages allow you to add color and graphics, and to create a unified look between your site and your email. You can make text links clickable, and track the clicks to find out how many are actually opening your information. It’s also easier to break up your information into sections, making it more readable.

The obvious downfall is many email programs block graphics, giving your message a harder time coming through to your readers.

So which is better?

Both!

Know your customers. What do they prefer? For my photography newsletter, I send it in html because photographers are very visual people. I have a very high open rate on my newsletter because it’s branded to my site, and people expect my information. The same with my VisionOfSuccess newsletter.

Do what brings in your customers, and what keeps them happy.

Lori

I just read an interesting case study put out by MarketingSherpa about Zappos.com, an online shoe retailer. In 2007, this company made $1.6 million in sales. This year, they expect $800 million, and hope to top the $1 billion mark in 2008. How did they do it? By concentrating on customer retention.

Most small businesses put their entire marketing focus on customer acquisition.   They  search high and low for new prospects, and spend most of their budget trying to bring in new sales.  Zappos.com did it a different way. They chose to make their existing clients happy - who in turn refer their friends because of the great customer service they come to expect from this online giant.

It definitely shows in their bottom line.

What can you do to improve your own customer retention?

• Higher quality customer service
• Overnight shipping
• No questions return policy
• 24/7 fulfillment

Listen to your customers - chances are they are telling you what they want. You just have to listen.

Lori

The number of people online, using the Internet worldwide has doubled over the past 6 years, making the total people online just over 1.1 billion users.

In 2006, over $108 billion was purchased in the online arena.

91 percent of adult Internet users between the ages of 18 and 64 send and receive email, according to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project survey.

According to a recent Direct Marketing Association study, email driven sales in the U.S. will show a compound annual growth rate of 14.9% between 2006 and 2011.

What does all this mean for you the business owner?

Now is the best time to get involved with your online marketing strategy, understand what your website can do for you - and make it work!

Lori

Create your own plan with my

http://www.visionbusinessconcepts.com/do-it-yourself-strategy.htm The more you understand, the easier it will be to create sales online.

Do you still get a newspaper on a regular basis?

Millions of people don’t. And that trend is taking a downward spiral.

With so many different avenues to get the news you want, when you want, sitting down to read the paper is becoming somewhat archaic. In fact I myself haven’t received a newspaper in over a year. Though the reasons are many, I find that when I’m in need of information, I can click to a few of my favorite sites, and get all the information I need. Or sign up for a few RSS feeds, and have instant content delivered directly to me.

So I found it interesting that  Rupert Murdoch finally closed a deal for the Dow Jones & Company for $5 billion, merging the company with his News Corporation.

So what’s in the plans for Murdoch? While no one seems to know for sure, though many are taking a guess.  One guess is they will be working heavily on their Internet strategy, gaining as many people as possible into their membership website.

Isn’t that the way of the world? The Internet allows anyone to easily gain what they want, and if you’re not out there actively promoting and gaining new customers online, you are losing business.

Lori