Ideas for Business

“Do you really want everyone to like you?” That’s what I told my teenagers when they were feeling the need to cave into peer pressure. Sometimes trying to fit in costs you your true identity. It’s the same for small businesses. Sometimes we try to cover too much territory. Our true power lies in what we’re good at. You’ve earned the right to call yourself an expert–by hard work, dedication, and doing one thing well.

If you haven’t honed in on your area of expertise, ask yourself:

What makes my company unique?
If I had to only do one thing, sell one item, what would it be?
If I had to let go of one line of service or product, what would it be?
What do I do/sell that no one else does? (Or very few)
What services do I offer that fills a real need or void?
If someone introduced me/my company at a party, what would they say?
What other business is the most like mine?
Does my website really state your expertise?
Do my keywords reflect my products or services accurately–or are they only close but not spot on?
What segment of the market have I not quite tapped into yet?
What do I enjoy doing the most? What’s easy for me?

Once you answer a few of these questions, then make sure you input these changes into your online marketing, local marketing, and traditional marketing plans. What good does it do to specialize and then not let people know what you’re good at!

Ways to promote your expertise:

Do a news release (also known as a press release)
Start a separate website that focuses on your expertise–and list is as a separate page on your main site. Besure to list your new site on the various directories. Go to OpenDirectory.com and register your site. Now that you’ve learned a thing or two about websites and SEO strategies, implement your knowledge.
Begin to blog about your expertise–what you have to offer, how you got to be good at this one area, and focus on how you can help others.
Change or add pertinent keywords and keyword phrases
Pitch yourself to a radio show. Start using your voice and stating that you’re an expert in a given field. Don’t consider it arrogant. If you’re really good at something, then it’s a service to offer your advice and direction to others–as long as it’s presented in a way that’s helpful.
Do a search on your area of expertise and check out the competition. You should have less now that you’ve narrowed your focus. What are they doing right? How can you tweek your site to offer something slightly different?
Mention your expertise when it’s appropriate on your social media–especially in your profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Author Marcus Buckingham reminds us in his book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, is that we shouldn’t try to be good at everything. Our brains are even hardwired at birth to begin to pull away from the less strong connections, and that our neurons bundle around one strong cord–that’s how we begin to specialize–and why some of us can play the piano and others can whiz through calculus. By fleshing out and then promoting your expertise, you begin to define your small business and discover your true market.

[Editor's Note: Today we have another entry from Dana Larson, Content Promotions Supervisor at TopRank Online Marketing, on a structured approach to starting search engine optimization.] 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a necessary component of any successful business website. The internet has become the primary resource for information on virtually everything, from goods and services to relationships. To meet the needs of customers searching for solutions, businesses need to ensure their website content is easily visible and what better way than SEO  to achieve this?

For readers new to SEO, getting started can be a bit of a mystery, like planning a trip in uncharted territory. How do you know which keywords to use in optimization? Can you implement an effective SEO campaign yourself, or will you require outside assistance? TopRank Online Marketing has established 5 SEO Essentials for those who need optimization but don’t know where to begin.

1. Establish a Plan of Action:  It’s important that you know what you ultimately want to achieve with your SEO campaign. Are you looking to increase your site traffic? Up your brand visibility among your target audience? Generate more leads? Solidifying your goals is a necessary step in deciding which SEO tactics to deploy and how to measure results.

2. Assess Your Capabilities: Do you have the resources to implement an effective search engine optimization program? Will you need to outsource some, or all, of your tactics? Search engine optimization involves a broad mix of skills ranging from dealing with code and server side issues to creative keyword copywriting to ongoing content promotion and link building.  Once you have established what your business goals are and what you hope to attain with your SEO program, take a look at your budget, internal SEO knowledge and bandwidth to decide what you can accomplish yourself and what you will need help with in the short and long term. 

3. Determine Measurements of Success: Measuring the success of a SEO program is essential and should match the specific marketing goals that have been set.  Many companies continue to determine success solely by rankings for key terms in the search engines, which has become largely irrelevant.  Search results will vary by the geographic location of the searcher, whether they’re logged in to Google and their past search history. Other metrics to consider include thea change in organic search traffic for optimized keywords over a given period of time as well as conversions. Reference the objectives you established at the start in order to solidify precise metrics that will clearly indicate the success of your SEO campaign.

4. Implement and Promote:  The right keyword research should result in a Keyword Glossary that can be used for a content optimization audit and serve as a resource for future content creation, digital asset optimization and link building. Code and server side audits should handle any technical issues along with tempalte and database optimization when necessary.  Processes for content optimizatsion on an ongoing basis will empower web site contributors to produce keyword optimized copy as part of regular web site content creation.  Keywords, content and links are the fundamentals to any SEO program.  Each need attention at the start, as well as on an ongoing basis to achive momentum and to create an advantage over competitors.  

After implementation, take your SEO campaign to the next level by finding your target audience online, rather than waiting for them to find you. Knowing where your prospective customers are interacting with one another online, and promoting useful content from your website as a resource within that space, can increase the reach of your SEO program by encouraging direct traffic and inbound links.

5. Maintain an Ongoing Program: Search engines are constantly upgrading the way in which they determine website rank. Businesses and the mix of goods and services may also  change over time.  After the initial site optimization, any future changes to the web site, especially with a content management system, can affect all past SEO efforts.  An effective SEO program needs to adapt in order to survive and thrive in the changing online environment. A consistent, ongoing SEO program is the best bet to ensure content continues to maintain visibility on search engines to customers that are looking. Ongoing SEO efforts also provide oversight of implementation, continued link acquisition, opportunistic content promotion,  coordination with other departments such as Public Relations, Advertising, Customer Service and HR as well as search analytics insight.

If search engine optimization isn’t a core skill for your company, selecting the right SEO tactics and resources can be as challenging as charting a course through the unknown. Each company has unique needs and it’s important to keep web site marketing goals clearly in mind in order to establish a campaign that will be successful and pay off.  Follow these 5 SEO Essentials and you’ll be able to navigate your way to a good start. If you’re thinking about hiring an outside SEO resource, check out “How to Hire a SEO Firm - According to Google“.

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Post tags: search-engine-optimization, SEO

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Going green isn’t just a fancy media word. It’s something we all need to consider. Small businesses will benefiit quickly from green efforts. It’s also a great point to feature on your website, blogs, and at your brick-and mortor locations. People “get” that it’s time to go green–and whether that means conserving your lights, carpooling, offering tele-commuting to your employees, or conserving on energy and office products–it all hellps.

Consider creating a paperless office. I recently visited someone who works from home and runs a paperless office. He has made a concerted effort to avoid excess printing, and does 99% of his work online. It was honestly the cleanest office I’d ever been in. And he seemed less stressed. He shared that it took some time getting used to, but he even encouraged others to invoice him via computer, and to make sure he backed his files, and although there are times he can’t avoid printing, he does so with care and uses recylcled office paper products. I was impressed.

Another area you can focus on is energy conservation. Advances in “power management” allows your computer to hibernate or power downs all the peripherals except what power it needs to maintain RAM (random access memory). Printers now have a feature that allows them to go into ”rest” or hibernation so that it conserves power when inactive. Power management can do a lot for your business. It can prolong battery life, reduce cooling requirements (which in an office with many computers/electronic equipment, your a/c costs can drop), reduce operating costs, and lower your overall power consumption.

The best way to help your company go green is to brainstorm. People don’t like changes mandated to them. So ask your co-workers or employers what ways they suggest to help conserve energy and “go green.” Start with 2-3 changes at a time. It’s easy to go gung-ho and then lose your momentum, so start with ways you can manage. Let someone champion the area they suggested.

Here are a few office green tips:

Announce a brown bag lunch day and encourage all employees to pack.
If your company uses plastic bags, consider investing in recyclable bags. Most customers will be glad to pay a one-time fee to convert.
Switch to safer/organic office cleaning products.
Encourage less printing. Have a monthly contest and see if this month’s total can be less than less month.
Consider tele-commuting one day a week. Working from home can actually be more productive for many jobs.
Rally your colleagues into action. None of us like being out on the end of the diving board alone, so encourage others to go green as well.
Go online and investigate how others have saved money in similar fields. Leave a comment on their blog or website and ask them about what worked best.

Once you’ve established a few “green” initiatives, go ahead and promote it. People care about this. Put it on your website, write a blog about your efforts–your journey–what worked, what didn’t.
Mention it on Twitter, and even chat about a great tip others could use. Going green is something others respect, and in our economy, the savings will often come right back to you.

Here’s a new one: an audio blog post (or podcast, if you will.) This one’s about the intruguing story of the [...]

Nice article from MarketingSherpa: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31146

Interesting some of the rates experienced SEOs can command in-house in the US. An interesting point made:

While employers know that they are asking for a lot, they are not always willing to compensate adequately for their requirements.”“They’ll say ‘I need a seven-year experienced SEO person that does a list of 15 things, and I have $40 grand to spend’…That’s the biggest area where I see a disconnect,” Bodem says.

Some of the rates I’ve seen offered here in Ireland are even more pathetic. Thankfully I have no need to work in-house, but if I did I’d be on a lain to the US right away.

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