Archive for May, 2009

I talk to many business owners seeking funding for their businesses. Many of them invest their money in fancy brochures, or even elaborate websites, but what they often don’t understand is that approaching a potential investor and showing them these things won’t do much to help their cause.

When an investor is looking to put money into a company, they are usually concerned about one thing; how does this business make money? Whether they are Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists, their goal is to put their money in, watch the business grow, and get out with a return. In this regard, the most important things you can show that investor is what you have done specifically to build a client base or generate revenue with your limited resources. Fancy brochures rarely close customers, nor do fancy websites. In fact, most business owners put online marketing at the bottom of their to-do list due to ignorance. I recently spoke with a marketing manager from a start up company who said “it’s too early for us to consider online marketing”. WHAT? This was even after I showed her that there were hundreds of thousands of monthly searches for her business.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you have to go out and dominate the Internet, but I am saying to do something rather than nothing.

Here a few suggestions:

1. Start Locally. Doing a local SEO campaign can produce great results for making a name for your business in your local market. Bare bones cost for a local search campaign = $499 (one time).

2. Issue a press release. There are right ways to do press and wrong ways. Most business owners tend to write promotional pieces about their companies and that won’t cut it as a press release. Having a professional team write a press release and get it on the news wire for you does not have to be expensive. My team can get the job done for $500 (one time).

3. Kick Off SEO Campaign. For many businesses, it is critical to engage in ongoing SEO activities to obtain and maintain strong rankings. However, doing a one time campaign, can get the site in the mix and get the search engines to at least know that you exist which will bode well for when you are ready to fully engage SEO. A kick-off campaign which includes a few pages of optimization, some directory submissions, a press release, and blog reviews runs at around $2,000 (one time).

These are just a few simple options to show you that SEO does not have to cost a fortune to get started. If you’d like more info or a free SEO consultation, you can contact me at 800-453-9290 or anthony(@)anthonykirlew.com

Have a great day!

Often when I am speaking with a prospective client, I mention channels within Google that they were not aware of, which means they are not targeting them for new customers. I decided to spell them out and discuss how you can leverage each of them:

1. Google Organic Search Results. This is Google’s main area of search results, and the area that most beleive they want to target for new customers. For most companies, I would agree that it makes sense to have an effective on page and off page search engine optimization strategy geared towards having a top rankning. For locally based businesses, there is a very critical and affordable channel of Google to target; Google Local.

2. Google Local (a.k.a Google Maps). If you are a business targeting local customers, then you need to be listed in Google Local. This is where local business are listed along side of the Google Map showing specific business locations. There are billions of local searches done daily, which is why it is critical to get listed here.

3. Google News. Making the news is critical for many reasons, but one of which is to leverage another one of Google’s channels; Google News. Google News often picks up press releases and serves the links to the articles through the universal search results. There is also an option to search the news directly.

4. Google AdWords. This is Google’s Pay Per Click (PPC) channel. The ads for Google AdWords are displayed at the top of the page and on the right column. If you don’t know what you are doing here, you can lose a fortune and not see any results, so be very cautious.

5. Google Video. Currently, Google Video has disabled new uploads, but Google does spider other video sites (such as YouTube which is owns), and presents videos in the search results. If you are not currently using Video’s in your marketing efforts, you are missing out on a great opportunity.

6. Blogger. This is Google’s free blogging platform and while I normally recommend having a blog hosted on your website, this is another channel that can be leveraged within Google. Truly, I don’t see it as a major source of traffic, but there is a blog search function within the blogger network which can bring traffic to blogs on the Blogger platform.

7. Google Shopping (a.k.a. Google Products) . If you sell products, you should definately be leveraging Google Shopping, which is currently free. Google shopping lists products you submit, whether or not you use Google Checkout as a means of payment.

8. Google Book Search. If you are a published author, you can submit your book to this channel through the Google Books Parter Program and be listed in the Google Book Search results based on your topic.

9. Google Image Search. If you have a visually based business, such as graphics, logos, or photography, you might be able to connect with those using image search.

Hopefully this has helped you see a new potential source of web traffic from Google. If you need any assistance with your online marketing campagn, contact Anthony at 800-453-9290 or anthony(@)anthonykirlew.com