I've had my number of triumphs in the world of business over the last decade. Over those years I learned some important lessons during my journey. A question that comes up often is, “what does it take to be successful in ‘my’ business?” It’s not your product, it’s not website address, it’s not the packaging design, and it’s not the price of your product. Those are relevant but not the deciding element.
The number one factor that determines a business’s long-term success and success is its ability to generate a flood of new customers and repeat customers that visit and their website or storefront. Seems pretty evident, but it is often overlooked. Business owners target everything else except getting traffic to their products/services. This is why so many businesses fail within three to five years of starting.
80% of your efforts should be spent acquiring customers for your business. Well how? Marketing, marketing, marketing!
Marketing your products and services is the lifeblood of your business, you as a business owner should be focused on. It’s what attracts leads to your website/storefront and converts them into hungry paying patron. You can have the best product/service in the world but if no one knows about it, then how great is it really?
Some business owners “get it” but they throw away their time, energy, and money with outdated and inefficient forms of marketing – newspapers, radio, TV, flyers, billboards. These types of marketing are dying out. People have become detached to the bombardment of these bland types of advertising and marketing. Less and less people are listening to the radio, watching traditional tv, reading the newspaper, and paying attention to stupid billboards that they drive by every day. You can probably agree.
People are actively searching out “specifics.” What do I mean by this? With things like Netflix, Spotify, satellite radio, and the internet, people are watching specific shows, music, and news with a few keystrokes on their laptop, phone, or tablet.
When they want to want to listen to “Jay-Z” or “Katy Perry” or watch an episode of “The Walking Dead” they are simply searching for it, they are not waiting for it to come to them. The same goes for a product or service!When an individual needs a “dentist in St. Petersburg, Florida” or “computer repair in Tampa, Fl” that’s what they type into the Google search engine. They aren’t waiting to see your TV ad or your “throw away” postcard to arrive in the mail.
According to Google data, over 50% of internet users are actively seeking LOCAL services – jewelers, repair services, lawyers, stores , etc…If you are not showing up in the 1st page of those results, you are losing out on 1000s of dollars of lost profits (depending on your industry) because those customers are going to your competitor who is on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing search engines.
Better yet, of those potential customers that find the local services/product/business in their search results; they are 5-7 times more likely to make a purchase, a 1000% more powerful than any other type of marketing. Not pay-per-view, not display ads, not LinkedIn, and not print advertising can come close those type of numbers.
So how do you get in the top search results for your industry?
You get there by doing SEO or search engine optimization. In layman terms, getting your website and/or business listings to the first page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing search engines so your product gets optimal exposure naturally. P
eople are actively seeking out your product, if you are at the page #1 of those results, there is no need to convince or sell them. You are automatically seen as a leader/authority by being at the top of the search results and you will likely get the sale just by being there.
You can hire an SEO company like Badger Marketing to help you get better search engine rankings or do-it-yourself. I won’t into specifics of how to do SEM for your business given its intricacy. That is separate article on its by itself!
If you want to have a long-term business, generate ongoing leads, and profit for your business you should be doing search engine optimization or at the very least consider it in the near future. As we move into the future, it will only become vital to do search engine marketing for your business as the traditional forms of advertising/marketing fade away.
The number one factor that determines a business’s long-term success and success is its ability to generate a flood of new customers and repeat customers that visit and their website or storefront. Seems pretty evident, but it is often overlooked. Business owners target everything else except getting traffic to their products/services. This is why so many businesses fail within three to five years of starting.
80% of your efforts should be spent acquiring customers for your business. Well how? Marketing, marketing, marketing!
Marketing your products and services is the lifeblood of your business, you as a business owner should be focused on. It’s what attracts leads to your website/storefront and converts them into hungry paying patron. You can have the best product/service in the world but if no one knows about it, then how great is it really?
Some business owners “get it” but they throw away their time, energy, and money with outdated and inefficient forms of marketing – newspapers, radio, TV, flyers, billboards. These types of marketing are dying out. People have become detached to the bombardment of these bland types of advertising and marketing. Less and less people are listening to the radio, watching traditional tv, reading the newspaper, and paying attention to stupid billboards that they drive by every day. You can probably agree.
People are actively searching out “specifics.” What do I mean by this? With things like Netflix, Spotify, satellite radio, and the internet, people are watching specific shows, music, and news with a few keystrokes on their laptop, phone, or tablet.
When they want to want to listen to “Jay-Z” or “Katy Perry” or watch an episode of “The Walking Dead” they are simply searching for it, they are not waiting for it to come to them. The same goes for a product or service!When an individual needs a “dentist in St. Petersburg, Florida” or “computer repair in Tampa, Fl” that’s what they type into the Google search engine. They aren’t waiting to see your TV ad or your “throw away” postcard to arrive in the mail.
According to Google data, over 50% of internet users are actively seeking LOCAL services – jewelers, repair services, lawyers, stores , etc…If you are not showing up in the 1st page of those results, you are losing out on 1000s of dollars of lost profits (depending on your industry) because those customers are going to your competitor who is on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing search engines.
Better yet, of those potential customers that find the local services/product/business in their search results; they are 5-7 times more likely to make a purchase, a 1000% more powerful than any other type of marketing. Not pay-per-view, not display ads, not LinkedIn, and not print advertising can come close those type of numbers.
So how do you get in the top search results for your industry?
You get there by doing SEO or search engine optimization. In layman terms, getting your website and/or business listings to the first page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing search engines so your product gets optimal exposure naturally. P
eople are actively seeking out your product, if you are at the page #1 of those results, there is no need to convince or sell them. You are automatically seen as a leader/authority by being at the top of the search results and you will likely get the sale just by being there.
You can hire an SEO company like Badger Marketing to help you get better search engine rankings or do-it-yourself. I won’t into specifics of how to do SEM for your business given its intricacy. That is separate article on its by itself!
If you want to have a long-term business, generate ongoing leads, and profit for your business you should be doing search engine optimization or at the very least consider it in the near future. As we move into the future, it will only become vital to do search engine marketing for your business as the traditional forms of advertising/marketing fade away.