Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
If there is one thing that really is frustrating about the internet, it is that when we are looking for some quality data on a product....
We get over and over again, the perspective of the businesses that function in that arena. Many of them are so intent on selling, selling, selling.
I was looking for the specifications of a clutch disc for a racing application. Now, these are wear out items, they must be checked and replaced on a regular basis (especially if used for racing).
Could I get a simple answer on the manufacturer's site about what the wear limits are? No.
How do companies 'not' understand that if you provide the end user with content that is relevant for the on-going application, then I 'the user' will be much happier to not only recommend the product, but the people behind it.
This is all about accountability, it is easy to merely say (from the manufacturers perspective) that it is 'your responsibility', it is in the documentation, it is blah, blah, blah.
Of course they are right...from their own perspective, now what does that do for the end user?
It tells them that they do not have the backing of the manufacturer, only the product.
If a product works well, has a long life beyond the basic implications, and works very well, am I going to tell everyone about it, especially after I get frustrated about seeking follow up data on specs.
Yes, I am going to tell everyone about the negative experience in service OVER the actual experience of the products performance.
Then of course, I put it into a blog for education purposes to tell other business owners / employees that this is a communication economy, not a industrial economy. These issues are easy to hide, cover up, pass the buck, however...
The companies that are willing to stretch and give out quality information on their site, in their blogs about how products are serviced, talked about in terms that are important to the end user, then, and only then will those companies be rewarded.
It is not the shiny object, blast in your face promotion that keeps people coming back, it is the attention to the needs of the target market that do the 'real work'.
It really is that simple.
Back to the rest of the day....enjoy it.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Today is the last day of April 2013, how about some serious Inbound Marketing stats:
If a picture is worth 1000 words, or whatever your cliche' is, here is some realistic stats on a customer of ours that speaks well for adoption of Inbound Marketing.
This is not rock science, however it is built on doing what is necessary to engage your target market. While every lead that comes in is not going to yield the same dollar amount everytime, it does demonstrate that through solid planning and marketing execution (read: on a timely basis with improvement at every tracked/measured step) leads to increased productivity and sales.
When you give your target market what 'they' want, they will show up at your website via search, looking for reasons to connect. This isn't just building shiny objects or buying into someone's website design hype. This is the result of a well executed plan.
DATA leads to information, that leads to knowledge, which leads to wisdom to make good business decisions. Are you utilizing all that your website visitors are telling you?
How about a marketing analysis to help you understand what you are doing well and what you could use help on?
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
The twin cities online marketing has been going through some serious change.
People that are in-tune, paying attention, wanting to grow beyond the basic 'keep up with the economy' business objectives are really gaining traction and market share from the also-rans.
Hubspot puts together great content to tell the story, and here again they have taken something basic, full of reality to demonstrate.....
Online marketing is never easy, it is never a one time set-up, watch the business come flooding in. It is however a true dialogue with your target market.
When you actually put out content that your paying target market wants, the analytics and the business shows your efforts. Don't let simple, pay here, get business tactics ruin your year. Steer clear of the 'Shiny' objects, they don't last. What does last is a business plan that connects, converts, and improves with the day, week, month, quarter, year.
Do the work, (or hire us to to do it, LOL), see the results, improve, wash, rinse, repeat.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
The internet has trained us as consumers to do several things: Here is what we all know how to do:
- Search: Look up answers to questions that are of interest to 'us'.
- Store: information, processes, directions, pictures, everything that we want instant access to on our devices.
- Buy: Feed the need it now philosophy, purchase without physical effort of going to an actual store.
- Read: Step away or closer to our world, this is ours to nurture, educate, motivate however we choose (at the moment).
- Need: Satisfy our craving of the moment.
- Want: Fulfill our desires once again, ponder the idea of something more.
What the internet & online marketing hasn't done is train business owners to pay attention to what this all means in terms of making quality connections.
With all this power at our fingertips, comes choice & responsibility. Buyers are really in control these days, we are all buyers, some of us are also providers, businesses that want to influence, draw in our target market, demonstrate our capabilities, earn the right to be the one to provide those products and services.
Now that we have taken that leap, what remains? Small business owners have embraced some form of internet presence. checked it off their to do list.
Things have changed again and now we have to update? The reason for updating the internal thought process is that in order to be useful on the internet, first you must be interesting, relevant, and offer up more than your competitors just to get found.
- Did you know? That tracking 25 words is never going to get you where you want to be, that number should be over 500.
This is tough to swallow for a small business owner who wants to make widgets, charge a price, deliver and get paid.
So, why again do I have to change? .................I have fulfilled my obligation, I have a website, I get business, my world is doing just fine.
The answer is that you don't. So, go back to what you were doing and keep the lights on, remember 'build it and they will come'?
By the time that people / business owners figure out that there is more, that will be too late. But, I am making a living, so why do more?
again with the reasons, change is hard for some.
Maybe some added questions will challenge ones status quo;
- What is your conversion rate on standard pages, how about landing pages?
- How often are the analytics being reported that actually mean something to your bottom line?
- What are the keywords that matter to your core business offerings? Are you tracking 3-500?
- How are you determining return on investment with your current online / offline marketing?
These are real questions that align with todays online marketing business skill set. If you are not asking these questions, than what are the metrics that you depend on for sustainable profit? We all have that, right?
I am not saying that one should change for the sake of it, what I am saying is that a continuous process improvement strategy in place keeps business in motion. Just making money month after month is saying that you expect it to continue. So, how about improvement, how about identifying trends 'live' instead of waiting for someone internally to tell you that the business is suffering.
No one wants to tell the boss that the ship has a large hole in it and the water is getting deep. Pick your metaphor, we all have them at our disposal. Pick carefully though.
Not having a proper tracking, measuring, improvement system in place before, during, and after 'things' change will create a shock wave, when they could just be worked on, chipped away at, and be a part of the weekly events while growing the company to be a leader in the myriad of mediocrity.
As a business owner myself, I want to know we are working on our business, moving things forward, watching changes as they happen and being proactive. It's harder work, but it aligns with our values and core beliefs.
- But, don't take my word for it, you don't need permission to ask these tough questions, go ahead, challenge your 'status quo', you might just uncover a pain point / need that will change your business in the right way.
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We all have an eye on the weather to be ready for change, shouldn't your business operate the same way?
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Website Designers do not know what your customers questions are:
While many believe that they know what their customers want (it is usually a product and/or service), so the questions that need to be asked are those that lead up to the actual decision to that a product and/or service are what is best.
Here is my point:
Reality is in our world of readily available information, reviews, reports, analytics, and opinions, business owners need to attract their target audience long before they actually sell them.
Problem identification is a hurdle best served with story telling. If you are only providing a 'buy now -15% off'' website experience, what in terms of value are you presenting? Visitors don't want specials at this point, they want value defined by what they see, not anyone else.
Your not providing value, discounts are only a small portion. Just like any business owner reading this blog post, it is all about what are you bringing to the discussion, and why should I continue reading / engage?
My answer to this is simple; if you are reading this because you have recognized pain points in your marketing efforts, this may be of value.
* Are you experiencing growth above what the current economy?
* Does the lead generation, number of online inquiries sufficient enough for reaching 2013 business objectives, how about those this quarter?
* What are the conversion rates of your best web pages currently?
* Do you track, measure, improve web pages to increase your target markets willingness to connect with you?
* How often do you improve those pages, calls to action, landing pages?
These 5 questions are just the beginning, inbound marketing is a fairly new term that alters the process of website design from previous days. It is about answering the real life questions, comments, concerns of your target market. Designers are not savvy in terms as such, they build subjective pages that are based on input from business owners and design ideals.
It's not their fault, they build amazing design, what they do not do is apply input from this past weeks analytics, this past quarter, etc.
Do you see the disconnect?
How do I address this issue? Well, if you are planning to do the same process, expect improved results, good luck with that program. Talking it over with your current website designer will get a altered response, even some additional tactics and builds to overcome the current situation, it is still the same methodology.
Tell them what you are worried about
Give them direction, talk about inbound marketing, blah, blah, blah.
- Receive a consult on how their new tactics will remedy the situation.
It is still the same methodology, ask yourself this;
1. Are they going to be accountable to the actions to increase desired benchmarks?
2. Will they be tracking, measuring, improving as to be an active participant in my business, weekly, monthly, quarterly?
3. How are they going to do all of this, will it be a closed loop system? Google Analytics is not a closed loop system, again the shine on the same platform is still the same platform.
And finally, if it didn't work before you asked them about updated strategies and tactics, why did they not keep you informed in newer technologies that improve website ROI?
The answer again is; it is not part of their business offerings, they build websites based on companies expectations of what they want their website to look like.
Do not forget; people, actual visitors to your site are looking for reasons to connect, reasons to stay on the page, dig deeper into what value you have to offer them to actually solve their pain point.
The best way to achieve a strong following, customer base that is willing to share their positive words about their experience (from first visit to paying customer) online and offline (word of mouth) is to have the right tools, and the right people doing the work weekly to improve connections.
The 'contact us' or 'call us now' does not work anymore. Well from a ROI standpoint, it is very expensive. Can you afford to get mediocre results from a pretty website?
The real answers for giving your true customers is in the testing, it's in the analytics, it's in the daily, weekly, monthly tracking, measuring, improving. Do the work, get the information turned knowledge, make changes based on learning & growing as a business, not what your web designer believes it is, that is a myth best served with shiny objects, but still a myth.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Blogging for Business: What if my industry is just not exciting enough? I do not see a reason for it, no one wants to read about my industry.
This is a response that many small business owners say when talking about the benefits behind good inbound marketing.
- My answer: This is a myth that is made up when someone wants to merely fit in, or is unwilling to take the risk to do different and be remarkable in a new economy.
Blogging is sexy, no matter what the industry, what I hear or listen to in those responses is: I do not want to put in the work because I do not have enough information to believe it myself. I don't read blogs, neither do my customers.
.............Yeah, let me know how that is working out for you.
Here is the scoop: Resistance is going to happen, that's fine, however moving forward with proven inbound marketing tactics leads to increased sales / revenue.
- Blogging Fact: Every industry can be sexy.
- When you give your target market the information necessary to make an informed decision, this is sexy.
- Companies that blog get 5X more traffic, that is sexy.
- Companies that increase from 3-5x per month to 6-8x per month double their leads, that is sexy.
- Education on product / service leads to trust & respect, that is sexy.
- Knowing that you did not make a mistake in the product or service is sexy.
- Saving money, saving time is sexy.
- Sharing with everyone how you enjoyed the process and the results of getting exactly what you want in a product / service is sexy.
Let me sum it up this way, until you get out there and share quality information / content, you won't know. People are searching for answers to their questions, make this easy for them, if you do this correctly, your target market will find you.
If the myth that your target market won't respond to your online marketing efforts is looming in the back of your mind, well you will be right. The effort must be built on the premise that you are sharing quality information based on what is needed by those searching, not by just what you think it should be.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Inbound Marketing Help | Ever notice that taking forward action leads to the possibility of success or failure?
Small businesses that have achieved success often forget what got them there in the first place. It happens to be challenging the status quo, making decisions, taking risks. We like to take properly thought out good business decisions, this is where we separate the men from the boys.
Over and over again, while it is not immediate, companies are stretching older tactics expecting to keep pace with business objectives. So, what is going to be your turning point?
- What a good inbound marketing company does is dig deep into what is working, and what is not, then and only then does an action plan make sense.
Internally and externally.
This scares business owners, why? Well, having someone audit your industry and your efforts to provide products and services within that industry involves vulnerability. We never grow without it. You did it playing sports, going to college, etc.
- Ask yourself, do you want an online brochure, or do you want a online site filled with engagement opportunities and seeking well qualified leads for your sales pipeline?
When you built your company, did you not feel vulnerable?
- Why is this necessary for growing in this economy?
Well, first and foremost, companies are refusing to take action for the fear of failure, the fear of losing business. Eye-opener: If you have been doing the same thing from the past five years, you have been experiencing negative growth that has followed the economy.
- Why leave your business success up to the industry / market?
It is safe. I don't have to think, take risks. Well, leaving it up to chance and avoidance is a marketing decision, your competition will erode your business and you won't even know it.
Have the right tools, the right people doing the work, track, measure, improve. Cause, effect….
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Proving ROI with your website design is more than a presentation and building a great looking site. It involves pulling in qualified visitors to leads to sales.
Most small business owners have a good knowledge of their business operations, we don't want to affect / change that. Minneapolis Inbound Marketing gives you the best tools available, track, measure, and improve in real-time.
- Fact: The internet is the best marketing tool for getting found, converting, and providing information to make quick, accurate decisions to move your business forward. Serious leads come from serious visitors, they will dig deep into your website looking for reasons to connect / engage.
Making positive changes / improvements quickly = improves cash flow performance.
- Question: Is moving forward (growth) part of your 2013 business plan?
While most people will say 'yes', very few will have actually put a structured plan into action. Why? Because this takes time / energy, and most important it disrupts the status quo.
We are very good at quantifying value and opportunity for our clients, Understanding the good, the bad, and the ugly of how a specific industry is performing vs. how the company is performing. This takes the right tools, the right people.
Having tools in place to reduce / eliminate the guesswork of where to go next is mandatory, not luxury. Ask a website designer how they do this and they will give you the high level presentation, not the real tactics necessary (it's not their fault, they build great looking sites, not performing sites that look good).
Does every business qualify as a good Tru-Market candidate? No. We choose people / companies that fit our core values, we are here to build long term relationships that produce value over and over again.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Thinking about having a website redesign? Here are 7 things that matter, yet the real 
questions are further in this post.
- Website Audit
- Optimize Pages
- Increase Backlinks
- Increase Keywords
- Check Your Rankings
- Check Social Media
- Competitive Analysis
A short tactical list that increases the possibility that you will get found online. With all of this there is the other top priority:
Keeping highly targeted visitors on that landing page with quality content that they will ‘want’ to dig deeper into for their own benefit / education / situation to solve their own problem.
Website Design | Let’s define ‘Purpose and Intent ':
- Purpose is defined as ‘What you want me, the visitor to see, read, react to.‘
- Intent is defined as ‘What do you want me, the visitor to do next? Actions lead to sales.
Let me go further, when we build out pages for our customers, we ask the questions about one on one interaction. This gives us a greater ability to understand the clientele that will be visiting.
Website Design | That is the first step, not the last step in building that page.
This is where website designers can’t compete, they build the page and sell it to you as part of the website build or redesign.
Search engines do not stop refining search, neither should your online marketing professionals.
Every day, every week, energy should be spent on how well those pages are working towards business objectives. Even if we believe (both business owner and tru-market), the real answers lie in the analytics. With real time data, testing can show in a short time whether the pages are worth the time put into them.
You can take this post and ask the tough questions with your website designer, at minimum the shear affect of getting more for your money is worth it, you are in business to increase value to your target market and business objectives, right?
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Small Business Marketing | Today, I ventured forth with a question / comment session that brought small business investment to a reality check. This was not our first meeting.
While discussing the inbound marketing programs that Tru-Market offers small businesses. We tipped into talking about the investment the ROI. With our programs, it brings with it new strategies and tactics that while complex still have the effect of building a new platform to reach your target market, connect, convert leads into paying customers and have the closed loop analytics to back up smart moves and show areas where connection drops off for improvement.
Businesses that want to move forward with the best tools for connection with your target market will have to put themselves in an uncomfortable situation, all reward comes from risk. Change is about this very topic.
Online Marketing | Selling is not the norm anymore, it is about making quality connections.
These tools are amazing when pulled together to build an online marketing platform, however, there is one thing that cannot be done. Going this route without taking a leap forward, feeling the risk and building the path, testing all the time to success, thus reaching business objectives.
We cannot reduce the perception of risk, without open communication, trust and transparency. What we can do is provide the process in its full capacity with life examples and high level results across various industries.
We provide the process, back it up with quality information, it is up to individuals to convince themselves that a move forward with online marketing prowess is a good one. Business partners need to do their homework and trust their counterparts that they have the same interests, otherwise core elements like trust and transparency are compromised. We want to stick to our core values of trust and transparency, we will not compromise.
The internet still provides the best tool for reaching your target market, connecting with quality knowledge, improving customer satisfaction, and post behavior analytics to better the process.
Sharing these ‘real’ questions and stories is good for the whole, trying to tell them one on one is really a lot of work. So, the question for small business owners is 'Is moving forward part of your plan'.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business