Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

Out with the Old!

Have you changed the copyright notice at the bottom of your website? Now’s the time to do it! After all… nothing says, “we aren’t paying attention” like last year’s date (or worse: an even earlier year!) being displayed on a website through mid-June (or whenever it is we happen to catch it).

So… in addition to all the other calendar-changing exercises — remembering to write 2012 on your checks, ditching last year’s desk blotter, swapping the wall calendar, etc — make sure you check out your websites. And no fair looking at ours… we haven’t finished getting to them all yet! (What do you think reminded me to write this?!)

Also… if you have multiple Content Management Systems (CMSs), don’t forget to look at those. Check your shopping cart, blog, membership website, etc. to see if they have their own footers.

How to Always Have a Current Copyright Notice on Your WordPress Site

If you’re running WordPress, your footer content is controlled by your theme. Some theme designers provide a place in an “Options” panel for you to manually update the text displayed in your footer and/or copyright notice. That’s nice & handy, but you still have to remember to fix it.

Here’s a quick & dirty way to “set it and forget it” so you don’t have to remember to check again next year at this time.

1. Go to Appearance » Editor from the left-hand menus in your WordPress admin
2. Find the file that controls your footer in the list of files on the right-hand side of your screen. 99% of the time it will be a file called footer.php (if not, check your theme’s support site)
3. Click on the file’s name  to open it in the editor.
4. Do yourself a favor: highlight the entire file and copy/paste it into a text editor (think Notepad here, not Word). This gives you a backup of the code in case you bump something and break it.
5. Find the code that outputs your copyright notice. It should be easy to recognize. Here’s a hint: the HTML code for the copyright symbol is usually displayed like this:  &
6. Replace it with something like this: Copyright &copy; 2006 - <?php echo date('Y') ?>
7. Click the “Update file” button to save it.
8. Go check out your site!

Obviously, you can adjust as needed. The code I showed above is the actual code we’re using on our Nourish The Dream site, which we founded in 2006. You may want to use a different date structure, but that PHP code is what causes your theme to always show the current year (assuming your web hosting provider has the server configured correctly!)

Questions? Ask ‘em in the comments area below!

Happy New Year!

Recently, I was talking with a client who was reluctant to set up a profile on Google Places for his business.

“What if people leave negative reviews?,” he asked. “You can’t do anything about it, can you?”

A valid point. Unlike a WordPress blog or even a Facebook page, profiles in Google Places (and many other business listings locations around the web) do not permit the business owner to remove negative comments. Most of the time, a concern like this isn’t because the business is in the habit of disappointing the majority of its customers — usually businesses are worried about more insidious scenarios such as competitors working to gain advantage by leaving false reviews.

I shared with this particular client what I share with all of our other clients and trainees: monitor your listings and respond. It’s unrealistic for any customer to expect that you’ve never disappointed anyone or that other customers of yours haven’t ever had a bad experience. Every business does it, even with the very best of intentions.

What is far worse than seeing negative comments on a business listing (or Facebook page, Twitter account, Foursquare Venue, etc.) is seeing unresponded-to negative comments.

When you don’t respond, future customers are left to reach their own conclusions without your input. Did you try to resolve the issue? Was it a real customer? Do you care?

If you don’t respond… they are right to assume the worst.

If you do respond, you have the opportunity to show what you’re made of, and what it means to your business when a customer has a bad experience.

Consider the person who was running a video camera when this FedEx employee tossed (yes… tossed) his new computer monitor:

It doesn’t get much worse than that. FedEx mishandled his package… and there was proof! (Even if this were a malicious smear campaign, would’ve been nearly impossible to fake.)

Many brands have famously had terrible mishaps right out in the open — and in the age of blogs, social media and YouTube, it can be hard for even the most determined businesses to cover up their mistakes. With this one… no way. There are nearly 3 million views on the video after only 2 days.

So how did FedEx handle the situation? By responding with a YouTube video of their own:

The company also published a blog post to match. Was the video highly rehearsed? Was it sanitized through a few layers of PR and other consultants? Probably so. Nevertheless, FedEx did was was critical to do: communicate their regret over their customer’s very real negative experience, talk about what happened and how it contradicts their intentions and policies, explain that the issue has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction… and even hint about some consequences for the at-fault employee.

Nicely done.

Can you do the same? Hopefully, your business will never be proven to have done something this contradictory to your intentions. But even if it were to happen… you can respond. People respect someone who can admit their mistakes and talk about plans to avoid repeat occurrences. And your customers — both present and future — will too.

H/T: Mashable

Convert Your Facebook "Profile" into a "Page for Your Business

Almost every time I speak to an audience of business owners, there’s at least one in the crowd. Someone (or their nephew) created a Facebook “profile” for their business instead of a business “page.”

What’s the difference?

A Facebook “Profile” (soon to be called a “timeline”) has a first and last name, and can send and receive “Friend” requests.

A Facebook “Page” (formerly called a “fan page”) has a business (or organization) name, and other Facebook users can “Like” it.

We’ve all seen it… you log into Facebook and you have a friend request from someone whose first name is “Bob’s” and whose last name is “AutoRepair.” Maybe you did it… you have a personal Facebook account and you’re trying to use it for business purposes.

Well… if that’s you, I’ve got some good news for you. You can migrate your Facebook “profile” into a business “page” and successfully maintain all those relationships you’ve built. We’ll talk about how in a sec… but first…

Why Should I Migrate My Facebook “Profile” into a “Page?”

First, you should only do this if you have a Facebook “profile” (see above) that is really & truly for a business or organization (or public figure — more on that later) rather than for an individual.

But you should do it if that’s the case… and you should do it immediately! Why? Because Facebook will delete the account without warning. It is a violation of the Facebook Terms. And Facebook isn’t obligated to give you any advance notice… when they discover the account (and they will) or it gets reported (think competitors here), it’s all over. All those relationships you built… all the hours you spent sending and responding to friend requests… all the time you’ve spent adding links, posting photos, sharing content, writing notes, commenting on others’ posts, etc… all gone.

To my knowledge, no one has ever successfully appealed the deletion of a Facebook account. You simply get to start over… from scratch.

Now… just because you’ve gotten away with it for a while doesn’t mean anything. Most of the business owners I run into stumbled into this situation quite by accident or without knowledge. And so you may not have realized you were violating the terms (you did read those, right?). And so many businesses got away with this for so long that they felt no need to do anything about it when they discovered the problem. But Facebook has been improving their detection tools, and their ability to discover fraudulent “profiles” has improved dramatically.

Here’s the Good News

Previously, your only option was to create a Facebook “page” for your business, and then invite the “friends” of your “profile” to “become a fan” or “like” the new page. This was time-consuming, tedious, and not always very successful. Some people would “like” the new page right away… others would be confused… it was bad.

Now, however, Facebook has a migration tool to convert your “profile” into a “page.” This is great news for any businesses who want to keep all the relationships they’ve built. But there are some potential “gotchas” along the way (in other words… read everything here before you proceed!!) First, here’s how it works:

1. You follow the link to the migration tool, which works almost identically to the “Create a Page” function. This means you need to choose what type of page you’re creating, complete all the necessary details, etc.
2. Facebook migrates your “profile photo” and all your “friends” to the new page. The “friends” become people who have “liked” your new page.
3. Your “profile” and all its other content (past posts, messages, admin privileges for other pages and groups, etc.) gets deleted permanently.
4. You continue to login to Facebook with the same email address and password.

Important Steps to Take Before You Migrate

Obviously, you’ll want to proceed with caution. While it’s great news that you get to keep those “friends” (as “likes”), you don’t want to accidentally lock yourself out of other pages or otherwise lose important stuff related to your Facebook account.

So… do this first:

1. Set up a new Facebook “profile” (if you don’t already have one) for yourself personally. If you already have one, make sure you can successfully log in to it!
2. Add your new/other Facebook “profile” as an admin on any Facebook “pages” or “groups” that you have either created or have admin privileges for. If you don’t do this, you will permanently lose access to these pages and/or groups!
3. Download a file from Facebook containing all the information from the “profile” you are migrating to a “page.” This way, all your old messages and any other content you’ve uploaded, shared or otherwise created on Facebook will be backed up to your computer before it gets permanently deleted from Facebook.

Once you’ve done the above, then you begin the migration process with the Facebook migration tool. Proceed with caution: Facebook has an “appeal” process for people who perform this step accidentally and then wish to reverse it. But I wouldn’t bank on that actually working.

Feel free to post your questions here (below). Additionally, Facebook has created some helpful resources about migrating your “profile” to a “page” that are worth checking out.

For Public Figures: Authors, Speakers, TV Personalities, etc.

Building a Large Following Associated with your Personal Name? Create a Public Figure Page on Facebook.

Occasionally when I speak about social media strategies for business, we have someone in the audience who has hit the 5,000 “friend” limit on Facebook. We also occasionally do consulting for authors, speakers, television personalities and others who have large followings who have had this happen or are well on their way.

If you intend to gain a large following associated with your personal name, you should consider creating a “Public Figure” Facebook page. A few important reasons why:

• This allows you to maintain a “private” personal Facebook profile with a smaller number of “friends” with whom you can share personally, interact, etc., while maintaining a distinct persona from the “public-facing” version of your social media self.
• You will not hit the 5,000 “friend” maximum. Brands on Facebook are carrying tens of millions of “likes” without being capped. This means you can keep growing your following without limitations.
• Facebook actually becomes more useful and meaningful when it isn’t cluttered with posts from people you don’t really know very well.

If you do maintain both, there’s no reason why you can’t use both to promote your new stuff… but just keep in mind some people will choose to “unfriend” or “unlike” one version or the other of you on Facebook (maybe both) if they’re seeing too much content from you. This is normal. But of course… if you’re delivering great value on Facebook, this won’t be concern!

Want to learn more? We’ve created the Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit to help equip business people like you with winning strategies for growing your business in the 21st Century. Check it out today!

Today is National Coffee Day. I still haven’t figured out whose idea that was, but hey… I’m all for celebrating! Especially the beverage that I spend so much of my time with, and even attribute some of my business success to!

Why do I attribute some of my business success to it, you ask? Well… aside from keeping me awake so I can be productive, I frequently use an example from Starbucks when speaking to audiences and training small business leaders to get better results from their marketing.

With the Starbucks example, we are essentially trying to help business owners and those responsible for their marketing to understand this: people aren’t buying what you think you’re selling. Starbucks roasts coffee beans purchased from growers all over the world and sells them primarily by making drinks out of them in their local retail stores. What business is Starbucks in?

a. Coffee

b. Beverages

c. Legal Addictive Stimulants

d. Entertainment

Obviously, if Starbucks answered “A: Coffee” then they would probably have to sell for the lowest price possible. They would compete against anyone and everyone selling coffee. But Starbucks is most famously selling something more. There’s a full discussion of that over here.

Let’s Get to the Free Stuff

That illustration on coffee has helped a lot of business leaders grapple with and ultimately answer the question, “What are you really selling?” And when they realize that they’re selling something different than what their marketing has historically focused on, they realize they need help. That’s what has been great for me because that’s when they realize they need training on how to reach out and get new customers in the 21st Century.

That’s where the free stuff comes in. We’re launching a brand new training course that will begin next week. It’s called “The Secrets of Search Engine Rankings for CEOs, Owners & Executives.” If you’ve ever wondered why your business does or doesn’t show up at the top of page 1 in the Google search results, then this training is for you.

Here are some of the questions we’ll be answering:

• How does Google decide which websites to show on top of page 1?
• How can I find my website’s position if it’s not readily visible on a particular search?
• Do I really have to pay someone to be on top of the search engines or can we get there ourselves?
• What can I do to make sure that my site is moving up?
• How can I make sure I’m not getting ripped off with Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) services?

This training will happen over the course of 3 LIVE webinars. Each will last approximately 1 hour. Here’s the deal: we will be recording this to produce a brand new product that will sell for $97.

I’d like to give you the opportunity to be in on this product absolutely free. Here’s how it works: anyone who purchases our Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit by Friday at 5pm Eastern will automatically be registered to attend the 3 live training sessions absolutely free! This is a priceless bonus! By attending some (or all) of the webinars live, you’ll have the opportunity to get your questions answered live during the training. People who only catch the recordings after the fact will obviously not be able to do that. So this a huge added value!

Check out all the details for the Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit here.

What Others Are Saying About “The Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit”

From December, 2010:
“A quick note to let you know how valuable your training has been to me! It has already helped me identify several key areas that need my attention to cause my business to flourish like I want it to. I am nowhere near finished the training but I have already identified and implemented some of the ‘techniques,’ as I interact with my customers. The results have been phenomenal! I have already made my money back with the orders I have captured as a result of your training.” (emphasis added)

From March, 2011:
“I wanted to thank you again for the services you provide through Epiphany. I have moved up to the first page of the Google search engine in as little as 3 months! One month ago I secured a $40,000+ contract with a vending manufacturer who found my company on Google. I was also recently contacted by another manufacturer who wants to send us all of his business … and yes he found us on the front page of Google. Don’t stop what you are doing. You are truly a blessing to the business community!” (emphasis added)

Sonya L. Thompson
First Choice Locators & Vending SVC LLC
Minneola, FL

I look forward to “seeing” you on next week’s training webinars! Be sure to purchase by tomorrow (Friday, September 30th) at 5pm Eastern in order to get in on “The Secrets of Search Engine Rankings for CEOs, Owners & Executives” absolutely free!

Happy Coffee Day!

Photo: LotusHead

This morning, I woke up to dozens of e-mails from my websites notifying me about issues. Worst of all, however, was the notification from MediaTemple: we’ve disabled your hosting account because your website is serving as a relay for spam e-mails. Yuck.

Immediately, my mind went to the TimThumb.php issue that was discovered a couple of weeks ago and reported widely throughout the WordPress community, perhaps most notably by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.

Sure enough, a quick check of the files via FTP revealed that the script had been compromised and other files uploaded to the site. It took only a moment to fix, and big kudos to the MediaTemple support department for the quick response. We were back online within 20 minutes.

Obviously, I knew exactly how to fix the issue. If you are like many people operating self-hosted WordPress sites, then you may not have a clue what to do. I’ll provide some step-by-step instructions below, but this video gets the point across very quickly.

Is Your Site Affected?

As I pointed out in the video clip, not every WordPress site has this vulnerability. The TimThumb.php script is mostly used in more advanced WordPress themes that have features related to dynamically resizing images. The script itself is freely available and can be used by anyone on any website thanks to its GPL 2.0 licensing. How can you tell if your site uses it?

• Look for a file in your WordPress theme’s folder called timthumb.php. If it’s there, you need to fix it.
• All WooThemes utilize the script, although as I pointed out in the video clip they have renamed the file itself to “thumb.php.” WooThemes has created a fix for the issue by moving the thumb.php into their “framework” and allowing you to update the framework to the latest version. Be warned, however, that using this “easy fix” may also break other functions on your site, depending upon what has changed in the Woo framework since your website was built and launched.

How to Replace timthumb.php in Your WordPress Theme

The easiest, safest and fastest way to eliminate this vulnerability to your website without risking breaking other functions is to follow the instructions I outlined in the video clip:

1. Download the latest version of TimThumb from its Google Project site.
2. Connect to your web server via FTP. In the video clip, I used the free Filezilla client, but any FTP software will do the trick. You may need to obtain the FTP hostname, username and password from your web hosting provider if you don’t already have it handy. You can usually find it by logging into your web hosting control panel. Contact your hosting provider if you get stuck on this.
3. Navigate to the affected file. Locate your WordPress installation on your website, then look inside the wp-content folder. From there, go to the themes folder, then locate the name of the folder for the theme you are currently using. It’s a good idea to go ahead and fix any unused themes you have uploaded as well. If you are using a theme from WooThemes, the file is called thumb.php.
4. Delete the file. I actually tend to rename things rather than deleting them. This is a good idea if you’re not sure that you have the right file, since you can always rename it back to the correct file name if you need to put it back.
5. Upload the new version. Keep in mind that the actual name of the file needs to match the name of the one you deleted. In most cases, the file will just be called timthumb.php and will be fine when you upload it. If you have a WooTheme, make sure to rename it to thumb.php.
6. Test. Usually, just refreshing whatever page on your site uses the script will tell you if it’s working. For Woo Themes that use sliders on the home page, just refresh the home page. Every theme will be different, however, so click around and make sure you refresh as you do so you can be sure everything went according to plan.

Have You Backed Up and Upgraded Your WordPress Site Lately?

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve been ignoring that “WordPress 3.2.1 is available! Please update now.” notification. And actually, it’s not always a bad idea to wait a little while before upgrading WordPress.

But… if you haven’t backed up your site lately, then you could find yourself in a bad situation when a hack like this or some other catastrophe occurs (e.g. web server failure, hosting company outage, etc…)

This is why we are offering a complete WordPress backup and upgrade service. We will:

• Perform a complete backup of your WordPress database and files, including all plugins and themes
• Upgrade the WordPress core to the latest version.
• Upgrade your plugins & themes (where applicable), fixing any issues that may arise
• Back it all up again.

You simply provide us with your hosting information… we take care of the rest! Your backup will be stored on your webserver and made available for you to download to another computer for safekeeping. And when we’re finished, your site will be running the latest version of WordPress with up-to-date plugins and themes! And all the for the low one-time fee of $97. Get Started Now.

Google Places Listings in Search Results

While Google Places is most important if you’re serving one or more local markets, every business should have (and use!) at least one listing on Google Places. If you don’t have yours set up yet, these instructions will help you get started.

One you have your listing, however, how do you make sure it has good positioning in the search results?

Like any web property, your Google Places listing will improve in the search rankings when there are links to it. Any link will do, but an “anchor text” link will be even more effective. The secret of finding the URL (or address to link to) for your Google Places page is coming up in a minute. But first…

What is an “Anchor Text” Link?

Here’s a quick primer on the 2 basic types of links you can create (or receive) on the web. To illustrate, I’m going to refer to the product we recently released: The Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit in a Box …Without the Box!

I could send you to go look at this product on the web by providing a link directly to its address:

http://www.epiphanymarketing.com/the-ultimate-small-business-growth-kit-in-a-box-without-the-box/

Now… that’s an effective link (please feel free to share it with anyone & everyone!), but it’s a little lengthy and not very pretty… wouldn’t you agree?

A more appealing way to create the link is to use “anchor text.” Anchor text is the term for the word or phrase that is linked to content on the web. In the link above, there is no anchor text (OK… technically there is, but it’s identical to the URL so we won’t count it).

In the case of our product, a phrase that could be used to describe our kit might be:

incredibly valuable real-world marketing training

(Yes… I’m biased, but that doesn’t make me wrong!)

So here’s what a link might look like using anchor text: Please check out our incredibly valuable real-world marketing training for the 21st Century Small Business.

When you’re creating (or receiving) links on the web, the links will be of more value if they are anchor text links. The key is: the anchor text should be the phrase you’d like to see your content rank well on in the search results.

In other words, if I got more links just like the one above, I might expect the page containing our training program to rank well in Google search results for the phrase “incredibly valuable real-world marketing training.”

So… if you have a pest control business in Topeka, then you might want your Google Places page to rank well on the phrase “pest control Topeka.” In that case, you’d want other websites to link to your Google Places page using that phrase as the anchor text. Make sense?

How to Find the Real URL for Your Google Places Page

This is a little bit tricky. In most cases, when you visit your Google Places page, you’re actually going to be arriving on the page from a Google search. So… if you copy/paste the URL (or even use the “link” tool that Google provides you on the page), you’re going to have a really long URL that contains a whole bunch of data… including the specific search term you used. This won’t help you very much. So here’s the trick to it:

Search for your business on the map by going here.

Once you see the listing for your business… right-click on the link and choose “Open Link in New Window” or “Open Link in New Tab.” In most modern browsers, you should see one or both of those choices. The page that opens (in the new window or new tab) will have a URL that looks something like this:

In our case, http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17650561483947767278&q=blablablablablablabla with a whole bunch of characters and stuff afterward.

The key is to highlight everything starting from the “http” on the left all the way through the series of numbers that comes after “cid” on the right. Stop when you see the ampersand (“&”) character. Like this:

That means for us, I’m grabbing this: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17650561483947767278

If the anchor text for us is “small business marketing strategists,” then here’s what a link would look like: small business marketing strategists. In the case of one of our good friends here in town, it might be acupuncture Sarasota.

This little-known secret about the actual URL for your Google Places page can be incredibly helpful… we’ll talk more about this in a future update! Feel free to post your questions in the comments.

According to Google:

97% of consumers search for local businesses online.

If you don’t have a solid plan for creating visibility for your business, those people looking for your products and services will find someone else instead of you.

So what can you do that doesn’t cost a fortune?

Many businesses that we work with are surprised to find out that a great many of the most effective tools you can use today to get visibility for your business are free! Some of the others are either relatively inexpensive or can be set up in a way that you’re only paying when you’re getting results.

Here’s a Great Example of Something You Can Do for Free

You have probably noticed by now that in the last year or so, Google began rolling out a change to the way local search results work. Instead of having a separate map showing up on the results page, the map listings have been merged with organic search results on many local searches.

For example, in the picture here, I’ve run a search for a car wash in the city where we’re located. Google tries to show me relevant results from organic search as always.

What’s different now is that they are also giving me the locations of some of these businesses using the map on the right and “pins” with corresponding letters in the search results. We’ll refer to these as the “merged” listings, because the results are based on 2 things:

• the natural organic position of the website corresponding to the business on the map (based on relevance to my search terms)
• the rank of the map listing for the business based upon a variety of factors (including proximity, keywords, reviews, and more)

What makes this different is that you need to pay attention to your map listing because it is now affecting the rank of your website! Google may have already placed your business on the map using information they’ve gathered from other sources. If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good idea to claim your listing so that you can correct any inaccurate information and also provide additional details to help make the listing more relevant.

Here’s what to do:

1. Find your business listing on the map by searching for it at www.google.com/maps

2. If you find it there, click on the name of your business in the list on the left side of the map view.

3. Click “Edit This Place” on the right-hand side above the map

If you don’t find your business already listed, then go here:

www.google.com/local/add

Either way, from there you’ll need to login to your Google account or create a Google account. Then you can follow the instructions to edit the information in your listing.

The steps above don’t cost you anything, take only a few minutes, and can make a big difference in your visibility.

The frustrating thing is that you don’t know what you don’t know. And where do you turn for good solid information about what you can be doing to gain visibility through:

• search engine rankings
• Facebook, Twitter & social media
• mobile geo-targeted services like Foursquare, Facebook Places and even Google Maps
• and other means?

Well… we’re here for you. In fact, that’s why we created this webinar taking place today at 1pm Eastern (replay available here). In fact, on the webinar we’ll be showing additional free options for promoting your business as well as some important strategy to increase your effectiveness! There are still a few spots left so you may still be able to get in if you register right away. Everyone who attends will be automatically entered into a drawing for $100 in free Google advertising!

This event is absolutely free. We do these from time to time because it’s a great way to introduce you to the small business marketing training programs we offer. There are no obligations and no strings attached, so register right now watch the replay so you don’t miss out on this valuable information!

Free Webinar June 30th: The Latest Tools for Attracting Local Customers

Do you sell your products & services to one or more specific local markets?

Have you convinced yourself that internet marketing doesn’t apply to your business because you serve a local audience?

Are you confused by all of the latest options available to get the word out?

Maybe you’ve wondered about:

• How Google “Places” (map listings) affect your Search Engine Rankings
• How to make Facebook work for your business
• How “Check-ins” via geo-social networks like Foursquare and Facebook Places can help you get more business
• How to deal with negative online reviews about your business

We’ve had so many business owners ask us these and other questions related to the unique challenges & opportunities available for getting more businesses in a local market, that we’ve put together a special free webinar this Thursday at 1pm Eastern replay here.

Who Should Attend?

If you own or manage one or more of these types of businesses:

• retail businesses of any kind (with brick & mortar locations)
• contractors & consumer services (plumbers, electricians, pest control etc.)
• medical practices
• even local B2B businesses

this event is for you. And best of all, we’re giving away this valuable information absolutely free!

In fact, we’ll have one of our existing clients live on the call so we can show you exactly what techniques you can use today to get results!

Space is extremely limited, so you’re going to want to RSVP early to make sure you have a spot check out the replay here.

All you need to attend is your computer (and a phone if your computer doesn’t have speakers). Reserve your spot right away! I’m looking forward to “seeing” you Thursday! 

The replay of this event will be available for a limited time. Be sure to watch it soon… we’ll be taking it down without notice. Hope you enjoy it!

Last week we talked about someone who got ripped off by an SEO provider. And while not all SEO companies are as unscrupulous as the offender we mentioned, typically SEO isn’t the first place to start when trying to improve your marketing results.

In fact… there’s a long list of places not to start:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Email
• Yellow Pages
• Direct Mail
• Groupon
• Radio/TV/Print Advertising
• Foursquare, Google Places, Facebook Places and other GeoSocial opportunities
• Google Adwords and other PPC networks
• etc.

For the record, I’m not opposed to any of the above (including SEO). Quite the contrary, we teach the members of our small business marketing training programs specifically how to use these techniques and get results from them.

But when it comes to answering the question, “Where Do I Start?” the answer is very simple:

You need a clear, written, actionable and measurable marketing strategy that is focused on the right target market.

Very rarely do any of the businesses that approach us for marketing help already have a strategy like this in place. And this is why they can be smooth-talked by the salesperson (or sales process) for the marketing outlets above or sucked into spending hours and hours of time with very little to show for it (in the case of social media).

Without a clear strategy, we may gain successes in one area or another (such as top search engine rankings or large numbers of Facebook “likes”) but we will not be as effective at accomplishing the real point: sustainable new business coming in consistently. Building a business is not unlike building a physical building: you may be an expert at carpentry, concrete, electrical or some other element… but you won’t end up with the result you want without a set of blueprints!

Get Started Building Your Written Marketing Strategy

“OK, so I need a written marketing strategy. I get it. How do I start?”

Great question. Your marketing strategy begins and ends in one place: the customer. Who is your best prospect? How much can you possibly know about them?

In our marketing training programs, we ask our clients to think about their customer base as a target. Identify who is in your target… and then narrow down to the bullseye. As narrowly as possible, identify the common traits that your very best buyers share with one another.

Depending upon the size of your business, you may need to ask for help in answering this question. Talk to your bookkeeper or accountant. Who spends the most (or most often)? We typically know which products or services sell the best… but maybe your sales team needs to help you understand who the buyers are.

Take some time this week to understand as much as possible about your best customers. This is the essential starting point for all of your marketing efforts, and the most critical element in building an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Need some help getting started? Begin with an assessment. My team and I welcome the opportunity to be of service to you.

Also… watch your inbox for an invitation to our upcoming local marketing webinar. We’ll be talking specifically about the face of local marketing in 2011. If you are primarily selling products and services to people located near your physical location(s), then this event is for you. (We’ll have other events in the near future for those businesses that sell to non-localized markets as well).

In the meantime, get started building your written marketing strategy!

Suckered by an SEO Company?

Just last week, I was on the phone with Amanda (not her real name). Amanda is a healthcare provider in private practice, serving a local market. A few months ago, she got herself into a contract with a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company (which will remain nameless, although it’s tempting). Thankfully, her contract is almost up. In the meantime, though, she paid the company substantial monthly fees and basically got taken to the cleaners.

Before I go any further, there are plenty of honest, reputable SEO firms out there. In fact, I can throw rocks at one from my office (not that I would, mind you). But the landscape of search engine optimization is littered with trash like the company that bamboozled Amanda. I wish hers was a story I’d never heard before, but the fact of the matter is that it’s more the rule than the exception.

They promised her first page rankings in Google in exchange for their outrageous fees. They took control of her website (which they will tell you is a requirement for them to optimize the site), and then they began to do damage.

The next thing Amanda knew, the home page of her nice clean website was cluttered up with keyword-stuffed, nonsensical blather that would have scared off any real patients if they’d made it to the site. Further, it made her look like a babbling idiot.

But they got the site to the first page of Google for one of the important phrases they identified… temporarily, anyway. After she undid their graffiti, she contacted me.

My first question to Amanda was, “What kind of contract did you sign?”

Sometimes you have a way out — a guarantee that allows you to get back all or part of your investment. She didn’t think she had that right — and even if she did, she had neither the time nor the money to invest in legal services to get her money back.

The Problem with SEO

It always sounds good to get to the first page in Google. And trust me, if your website is ready for page 1, it is a good thing.

But when you focus only on one piece of the puzzle — the rankings, in this case — you run the risk of creating the wrong success. Ultimately, what Amanda wanted was new customers (patients, in her case), not an ugly mess that would’ve destroyed her hard-won reputation when people got to her website.

So the problem with a contract like hers is that the company she worked with didn’t bother to help her focus on the real goal. Instead, they sold her on the rankings and sacrificed the other elements that would help her successfully attract new customers.

The Real Need

Most small businesses still lack a solid, written strategy for attracting new leads & prospects. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be talking about how to set up your strategy and make it as effective as possible.

Need fast help? Our Website Performance Assessment may be for you. This in-depth analysis of your website looks at 16 points within the 4 major areas that affect whether you get results or not. You receive a written report and a 1-hour phone consultation during which we go over the findings together. The bottom line: you will have an actionable plan for exactly where to focus your energies to achieve results. We can only offer a limited number of these each month, and this month we only have room for 5 more. Get started here.