Marketing

...now browsing by category

 

Why Lead Generation Companies are a Bad Idea

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Money is Tight!The experts say that this ‘tough economy’ is going to go on for several years before finally hitting a tipping point back into some sort of stability.  Times are already straining for many businesses, and news like this isn’t good for those riding the almost-going-out-of-business fence.

Today I stumbled upon a press release about a local real estate company that hired a lead generation company to help them generate more customers (in theory).  The lead generation company’s website gives four easy steps to generating leads:

Click to continue »

Posted in leads, Marketing, small business | 5 Responses »

If I Were A… Limo Rental Service

Monday, August 15th, 2011

There are certain times in everyone’s life when a limo is a great idea.  From birthdays to weddings to special nights out, a limo is a great way to make the night even more memorable.

St Louis isn’t a huge town.  It’s not like New York or LA where limos are seen every day.  If you see one here, chances are it was rented for some sort of event, not because a famous person is cruising by.  And this isn’t Vegas, where they’re waiting by the hundreds at the airport.

I imagine that owning a limo rental company can be a bit stressful.  Those rides aren’t cheap, they have a somewhat high need for maintenance (especially cleaning) and need to be on the road more often than not.  So keeping the limos booked is a huge priority.  The following is a few things I’d do if I owned such a company.
Click to continue »

Posted in If I Were A, Marketing, small business, St Louis | 3 Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Return to Spender

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

According to a recent survey, nearly 47% of small business owners are now investing in their own businesses as a growth strategy.  This number shows an 11% increase from last year (2010) at this time.  I tend to believe these numbers reflect the growth in the SEO industry as a whole as well.  I don’t think 47% of all businesses are doing SEO, but there is definitely a similar percentage of growth in those actively participating in some sort of SEO strategy.

No matter what people say, “the economy” is still hurting business owners in a big way.  I get calls from business owners all the time wanting to find out about SEO as a way to increase their revenue.  Why? Because they’re hurting for customers.  Some small business owners (and large businesses) are starting to really feel the crunch – and they’re reaching out to friends and clients for help.  Somehow, somewhere, they hear about (or stumble across) SEO and realize that they are nowhere near the top.  They have no idea what SEO is, what it involves, or what the costs are to get there.
Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing | No Responses »

If I Were A…St. Louis Pool Contractor

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

This is part two of my “If I Were A” series.  This week I’m taking on the swimming pool industry, one that has really been hurt by the economy downturn.  Who’s installing pools? Not a lot of people, but there are a few local companies who are toughing it out.  Here are some tips for them, and maybe you can apply these to your own industry.

Two Distinct Markets

In the pool industry, there are two main markets: those that want a cheap above ground pool, and those that want an expensive inground pool.  One is a ‘give the kids something to do’ mentality, the other a long term investment.  So we’re already targeting two markets.  In most cases, however, inground swimming pool installers also sell above ground ‘kits’ which you can set up yourself.  So for purposes of this post, I’m going to go with an inground swimming pool installer. Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing | 2 Responses »

If I Were A…St. Louis Dentist

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Today is part one of a series called “If I Were A…” – in which I’ll take various professions throughout the Saint Louis area and show just what I’d do from an online strategy perspective.  First up – a dentist.

Prerequisites

There are some assumptions we’ve got to make here.  The dentist should already have:

  • An office
  • Existing patients
  • A website

Step One – Find A Keyword Niche

toothbrushesCurrently the search term ‘dentist st louis‘ comes up with just 860,000 results.  While this may seem like a lot, in reality it’s not.  Any result under a million is worth looking in to, and possibly ranking for.  According to the Google Keyword Tool, 4,400 people searched this phrase last month.

Switching the phrase around to ‘st louis dentist‘ results in 1.1 Million results.  Slightly more competition for nearly the same phrase. But check this out – this phrase gets twice as many (9,900) average searches a month!

And thirdly, the phrase ‘dentist saint louis‘ yields an incredible 2.7 Million results, yet only shows around 12,100 per month.  Which is a better deal? Click to continue »

Posted in local marketing, Marketing, St Louis | 2 Responses »

Knee Jerk Advertising Won’t Grow Your Business

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Are you feeling the crunch of the economy? Seeing less and less customers come through your door?  Tons of great businesses have closed up shop, and others have been forced to put the little emergency marketing budgets they have into use.

Yesterday I heard a commercial for a small steel company in town and found myself wondering why they’d spend a few thousands on a radio campaign.  I think it’s simply that they don’t know.  They’re feeling the crunch just like the rest of us, and probably listen to that particular station.  So they put together an ad about how great they are, and paid the radio sales piper.

Reactive instead of proactive. Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing, offline advertising, SEO, small business | 2 Responses »

Free Internet Marketing Classes

Monday, August 9th, 2010

This Fall I’ll again be teaching a set of Internet Marketing classes at the Jefferson County Library, Arnold MO branch.  There are two topics this fall – Marketing Your Business Website (SEO) and Leveraging Twitter & Facebook for Business.

Registration is required for the free classes, and priority will be given to Jefferson County residents.  These classes always fill up so make sure you get yourself on the list early.

To sign up, call 636-296-5171

Note: Attendees to the September classes will receive a promo code for discounted tickets to Market Saint Louis in October!

Class Dates and Times

Title: Marketing Your Business Website
Summary: Learn how to revive a “dead” website. Topics covered include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online advertising tips and avenues, along with ways to increase your website traffic and offline marketing ideas.
Dates/Times: Sept 23 at 6PM and Oct 15 at 9:30AM

Title: Leverage Twitter & Facebook for Business
Summary: In this class you’ll learn how to set up a Twitter account and Facebook fan page. You’ll learn about some great tools that will help you grow your fanbase, engage your customers, and how to utilize some ‘behind the scenes’ tricks to get the most out of your new accounts.
Dates/Times: Sept 9 at 9:30AM and Oct 20 at 6PM

Download and Print the Flyer

Posted in free stuff, Marketing, Saint Louis, small business | 2 Responses »

How to Rank Your Corporate Website

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

It never fails – every speaking event that I go to, and every class that I teach – someone comes up to me and says something like

I’d love to use your SEO techniques, but my website is controlled by corporate, there’s nothing I can do on it. I have no control over the site other than putting my name and hours of operation on there.

Yeah, that sucks.
Click to continue »

Posted in link building, Marketing, PPC, SEO | 8 Responses »

Big Discount for Upcoming Midwest Internet Conference

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

On April 1st I’ll be speaking at the Market Saint Louis conference about how any business can dominate their local area in search results. Along with myself are some other awesome speakers including Jason Tinnin from Saint Louis-based SimpleFlame and Derek Chew, former SEO lead at Yahoo!.

The conference only happens once a year, and there are only 100 tickets sold.  It’s a perfect fit for  small and medium business owners/execs.  There are two tracks – a beginner and an advanced, so no matter what you’re expertise level, you’ll learn a lot.

The tickets are $249 each, but I’ve been given the green light to offer a pretty sweet deal.  From now until tickets sell out, all purchases are Buy One Get One Free!  But that’s not even the best part – if you use the promo code ‘SPEAKER‘ you’ll get $50 off of the ticket price.  That means 2 tickets to this premier conference will only cost you $199!

How cool is that?

Like I said, this deal only lasts until all the tickets are sold out.

As if I need to sweeten it any more, the tickets also get you admission to the conference’s pre-event mixer on March 31st at 7PM.  You’ll get a few free drinks and will be able to meet the speakers and mingle with all the other business owners.

It’s going to be so cool.  I hope you can make it!

Details
Market Saint Louis
http://www.MarketSTL.com
April 1, 8am-4pm

Mixer (free with ticket purchase – sponsored by SimpleFlame)
HoteLumiere
March 31, 7pm

List of freebies: http://www.marketstl.com/register/freebies/

Posted in conferences, Marketing, small business, St Louis | No Responses »
Tags: , , ,

Does Your Business Have Groundhog Day Syndrome?

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

It’s February second and everyone knows what that means – whacked out people crowd around a groundhog and look up at the sky.  And on TV one of the greatest movies ever made is playing – Groundhog Day.

It’s one of my all time favorite movies. I’m not even sure why it appeals to me so much, but any time it’s on, I watch. The idea that the lead character (aptly named Phil) is waking up every day of his life in the exact same scenario is too funny.

Once he figures out what’s going on, he starts testing.  One day he steals the groundhog and drives off a cliff.  Another day he drops a toaster into his tub while he bathes.  Every day he wakes up and gets to do it over again.
Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing | 1 Response »
Tags: , , ,

« Older Entries