Before you hit send on that email to a vendor, client, prospect, take a moment to review how that message will be or could be received or perceived. If you wish to truly express yourself, a good ole’ fashioned phone call can do the trick without leaving room for interpretation and undue escalations in blood pressure.

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What a great way to build a facebook fan page….

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Fast forward 20 years and several new innovations: Welcome the Internet.  Customers these days EXPECT stuff for free. They WILL find stuff for free, the question is, will your web site be the web site that gives them what they are seeking?  Maybe it’s advice on how to grow their new grass plugs, maybe it’s insight on how to conserve battery life on your products, maybe it’s how to hire a great web designer. Whatever business you own, your web site needs to start feeding the public and ‘giving away the farm’ to those seeking your wisdom.

By giving away your wisdom and expertise, you assert yourself as THE expert, the master grass plugger, the masters of helping your clients resolve battery life issues, the experts on web design. The key, do it before your competition does.

If you’re ready to start feeding your prospects and customers, call me: 407-830-4550 to discuss your business and your web design / Internet marketing needs.

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How do I get invited to speak on National TV? Google organic rankings.  The Daily buzz found me in a Google search and has asked me back several times to discuss Internet marketing and social media.   How can you gain national exposure and be the expert in your field? Give me a call today: toll free: 866-998-6886 or in Orlando: 407-830-4550: Be sure to visit my web site and learn more about all of our web design and Internet Marketing services: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com.

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First it was GMC with their wide open ooops we goofed video and needed our tax payer dollars to bail them out:

Next, Tiger Woods starts losing endorsements and the PGA starts losing serious coin prompting him to come out and make a ‘public’ on his terms confession:

Last, Toyota.  Toyota has come under fire for several recalls on several cars.  Toyota’s reputation for building high quality products has been tarnished, so they of course resorted to the open video to consumers: I actually saw a new one tonight with an older couple telling the world how very impressed they were with Toyota coming out and apologizing and stating that their next car will be a Toyota.

While I realize the dire need for a prompt PR response, which of these above examples actually seemed the most sincere to me? The Tiger Woods confession.  GMC didn’t have a choice but to call a spade a spade, Toyota followed suit and is now using the transparent card to attempt and instill confidence back in its consumers and vehicle owners (myself included). Here’s my issue: it feels forced. I realize I’m jaded, but is being transparent just to be transparent wrong or completely fake? When it seems forced, I personally feels it damages the brand more than helps it. I often wonder as I watch the Toyota commercials  now, why didn’t you just do the right thing from the very beginning?  Sure, we ALL make mistakes, myself included, but the new fad of scrambling for a feel good ooops we goofed video seems so orchestrated now. What would convince me that there is a new GMC or a new Toyota? Superior products, quality driven and a true commitment to doing what’s right EVERYDAY, not just when they get caught with their pants down.

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I work with one particular company in town that is completely sold on Email marketing. they truly believe that the more email the send out, the more business they will get.  The trouble is, they are emailing people who don’t want to receive information from them. They spend hours harvesting email addresses from complete strangers thinking that they will be able to sell them via an email message. I have nothing against email marketing, but what I do have an issue with is adding random people to your email list because you got their name off of someone else’s mailing list.  That my friends is pure SPAM. Sending unsolicited email messages to strangers is a waste of time. In fact, I have far less respect for a company that sends me random garbage and am much more likely to NOT buy anything from them no matter what as a result of that intrusion.

I do think you should be gathering email addresses, but, gather email addresses from people who WANT to talk to you, who love your product, who are potentially in the market for what you sell down the road. And please, whatever you do, don’t email people everyday: The more you get in my face, the less likely I am to pay attention to you.

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Wrong.

If your web site is NOT converting, you need to ask yourself the following: WHO are you marketing to? Who is visiting your web site? It really doesn’t matter how many hits your web site got in any given period, it does matter WHO hit your web site during that period.  If your web site isn’t attracting the right audience, all the traffic in the world will not improve your bottom line. Yes, there are strength in numbers, but if those numbers are not shopping for what you sell, or don’t fit the demographic, it’s wasted traffic.

I’ll talk about some specific methods of targeting the right audience to your web site in subsequent blogs. Until then, thanks for reading and if you are seeking a true marketing partner to help grow your company, call me: 407-830-4550 or toll free: 866-998-6886.

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The reality is this:  When it comes to Internet Marketing, you need to being putting yourself in your consumer’s shoes. What do they want? Do they care about your new facility? Probably not.  Do they care about your new CEO or his/her message? Not really.  What they truly care about is what your company WILL do for THEM. Use your Internet marketing budget dollars to connect with your prospects and feed them what they are seeking. Here’s five easy things you can do on your web site to connect with your clients better:

1.) Make it easy for them to contact you.
Sounds like a no-brainer right? So many people hide phone numbers and contact information thinking that the prospect will dig deeper to find it, if you hide it, they will go somewhere else that makes it easy.

2.) Make sure your web site loads fast.
So many businesses have a tendency to have this immense flash ‘intro’ before giving people / prospects what they are really seeking. Your clients don’t have that kind of time or patience. Flash is fine in small easy to digest packages, but don’t make it a focal point.

3.) Lead them through the funnel.
We all have a sales funnel… make sure that your web site truly leads prospects through that funnel. The more consumers get sidetracked, the less focused they become on buying.

4.) Give it away.
Give your prospects a reason to come back and a reason to believe in your product: give them stuff.  By giving away information and useful tips, you pull and draw your clients in. Be the authority in your field and your prospects will WANT to buy from you.

5.) Ask them how you did.
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past is not listening to clients, or even worse, didn’t bother to ask for their input.  By engaging your audience, you can learn a tremendous amount about who and why you should be marketing to. Provide a feedback form or reach out to them after the sale to ask how  you did.

What makes a company great is the amount of customer loyalty that they have. If you engage and actually interact with your clients and prospects, you are on your way to greatness.  To discuss your company and it’s online growth, call me at 407-830-4550 and be sure to visit my web site to learn more about my company and what it can do for YOU. www.ontargetwebsolutions.com

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GIve me a call to learn about how your web site can sell and grow your business. Call 407-830-4550 or visit my web site to learn more. www.ontargetwebsolutions.com

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Take my simple web site redesign test:  if you have answer YES to any of the following, it’s time to redesign.

1.) Does Elvis begin signing Love Me Tender or does ANY other music start playing when your web site loads?

2.) Does your web site take 2 minutes to load because of the super duper gallery of 62 photos you need to display on your home page?

3.) Does it take half a century to scroll down to the bottom of your site to hit the ‘next’ button?

4.) Did you have to go on a virtual expedition to find the phone number or contact method?

5.) Did you happen to see a ‘traffic counter’ at the bottom of the page or an announcement congratulating you for being the 172 visitor?

6.) When you move your mouse on the web site does it have a neato mosquito tail that wiggles behind the cursor?

7.) When you click an image on your web site to see the larger image,does it open a lonesome white page with just a photo on it leaving you feeling all lost inside?

8.) Are there any cute animated thingimibobs or growing sprite flowers on each and every page assuring you that this is indeed a corporate web site, but it’s indeed a CUTE corporate web site?

9.) Does the title tag in the very top of your web site browser say “untitled document” or better yet, “home”?

10.) Does your web site mention any of these words in ANY of the code? Microsoft Front Page?

If you answered yes to ANY of these questions, you need professional help yesterday.  Call me at 407-830-4550 or visit my web site to learn more about clean professional web design. If you don’t get help from me, PLEASE, get help somewhere.

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During the course of the spirited meeting I kept hearing the same thing over and over from one marketing rep: “We are already blogging. We are already using facebook, We have three hundred fans on Facebook, we made a viral video already…” It kept bothering me. I saw the video, it will never be ‘viral’, I’ve seen the messages they are putting out on Facebook, nothing remarkable about that, I checked out their Twitter page to see they were only talking to themselves, etc.

Before you let any of your employees get social online, consider the following 5 ways to screw up a social media campaign:

1.) Don’t have a clear message or goal.
If your company is just tweeting to tweet or blogging because your SEO guy insists on it, your social media campaign will NOT yield fruit.

2.) Being Mechanical.
If your idea of a successful social media campaign is tweeting twice a day or posting on Facebook 3 or cranking out 4 blogs a week, your social media campaign will not succeed. To truly engage in social media, you must be fluid, you must be you, you must be engaged.

3.) Let the Interns do it.
Sure, they are young, they use facebook, they have to know how to do this stuff and they are cheap labor.  There is a huge difference between posting on your facebook wall what you had for breakfast and how many Baileys Irish Cream shots you had the night before to communicating and engaging with customers with a big picture goal in mind.

4.) Create a ‘Viral’ Video.
This one kills me. Your company has decided to create a viral video. The owner thinks it’s hilarious. The janitor even had a hoot helping out. Your whole office was involved and ‘get’s’ it. The truth is this: You made the video because YOU thought it was funny. Your intended audience doesn’t get your internal reality. Stuff becomes or goes viral because your audience Get’s it and LOVES it and HAS to share it with their friends.

5.) Sir SpamALot.
Your audience, customers, followers, prospects don’t want to be spammed. They don’t want special offers every three minutes, they don’t want your latest fliers stuffed in their face, they don’t want to be sold to. The purpose of social media is to ENGAGE, to talk, to encourage healthy dialogue. If you are constantly trying to sell, you WILL lose followers. I always encourage clients to put themselves in the shoes of their clients and / or prospects and ask themselves, ‘Will this annoy me over time?’.

Need some help? Call me. Nationwide: 866-998-5 6886 or in Orlando: 407-830-4550. You can of course also visit my web site to learn more about my company: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com

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Many people are scared to blog, what should I write? What if I sound stupid? What if no one reads it? From my personal experience, blogging can help train your mind, blogging can help you chart some new paths, blogging can help you and your company grow in many ways.

To learn more about getting a blog started for you or your company, give me a call: 407-830-4550 or visit my company here: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com.

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SMO:
Social Media Optimization is the process of utilizing and IMPROVING social media campaigns to grow your online market share.  With the web, every campaign is different, every demographic is different, every objective can be different, therefore, it is mission critical to pay attention to what is happening with your own campaign.

Optimizing your social media campaign should involve some of the following practices:

• Are you following the right people? Find out. If they are dead weight or spam masters, make them go away, and enjoy doing it. It’s fun and freeing at the same time.
• Are the right people following you? If you find that every self proclaimed life coach in the universe is constantly growing daises on your Twitter home page, make them take their peace, love and joy elsewhere. You’ve got a business to run, not a commune.
• Fine tune your message.  Who are you? What are you trying to convey? Over time and practice, you can crank out a consistent message without repeating the same words over and over.
• Give it away. I’ve said it a million times, people will find what they are looking for online no matter what (for free…..) Use your social media optimization campaign to give stuff away and spread cheer amongst your followers.
• Don’t disappear. Social media takes time and attention. You won’t have 12,000 followers overnight, build your tribe selectively and grow over time.

The most important thing I can stress is this: be real, be yourself, have a personality.  Your accounting firm doesn’t have to be all about numbers, your mechanic shop doesn’t have to be all about oil changes.  How can you set yourself up as an expert in your field and draw people to you seeking your leadership? Social Media.

Have questions about SMO? Give me a call to discuss: In Orlando 407-830-4550 or toll free Nationwide: 866-998-6886. Learn more about social media and Internet marketing at my web site: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com

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Social media is all about giving. It’s all about interacting, it’s all about sharing the love. I’m not trying to get all Utopian here, I wasn’t even born in the sixties, but hey man, it’s like totally groovy if you reach out to others, it’s all about the love, it’s all about the peace and harmony.  This truly applies to your business: how can you reach out to your customers? How can you show them the love? Consider the following social media ideas and just be like groovy man:

1.) Run a groovy contest and get help from your audience:
Engage your Twitter or Facebook audience and ask for their help: let them come up with the name for your newest work of brilliance.

2.) For Pure Flower Power, give something away man.
A Canadian web design firm recently ran a contest which would build their Twitter following and in return, gave away a shiny new MacBook Pro. The company’s online presence grew exponentially and the contest got them featured in Wired Magazine.

3.) Ask their opinion Man.
Companies spend thousands on focus groups when they could be getting plenty of focus from their existing customers via Twitter.

4.) If It Feels Good, Do It Man: Reach out to them.
Be social with your clients, ask them about THEM. People love to talk about themselves, let them.  Ask them the questions, get them involved, engage them about your products, engage them about your customer service.

5.) Don’t Sweat It Man.
If you goof, tell the world you goofed.  Use social media to fess up or at least be transparent.  Toyota ran a full page in the Orlando sentinel telling all of us that they goofed and that they will be correcting their recall issues ASAP. The truth will set you free, use social media to spread your confessions.

To learn more about how social media can help your company grow, call me: 407-830-4550. We’ll have a groovy conversation and I’ll show you how my company can help you grow your online presence.

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1.) If your web site sells products (e-commerce) and people abandon the web site, before they check out, have your web site send them an email offering them a discount if they come back within a certain time frame. Sure, you may lose 10% of a sale, but it’s better then losing 100%.

2.) If folks register at your web site, ask them for their birthday. Have one of your customer service reps call and wish them happy birthday personally.

3.) Surprise them. If you have regular web site visitors, send them an email and offer them a discount on their next purchase.

4.)Keep people guessing.  Offer a random weekly special and be sure to let your loyal clients know what it is before it’s public.

5.) Reward them. If folks send your web site a unique visitor who ends up purchasing, reward them both: the referrer for sending you business you wouldn’t have had and the new customer for being a new customer.

There are a million ways to wow people, take some time, look at your web site and ask yourself, how can I keep people coming back? People love to belong, help them belong, bring them into your world and make them feel special.

My company helps you create the WOW factor on your web site…. Call me today and let’s discuss how to make your prospects customers for life. Call 407-830-4550 or toll free: 866-998-6886.

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A true web site sells. It compels, it lives, it breathes, it grows and most importantly, it opens a dialogue. If your web site isn’t talking to your prospects and engaging them, why are you online?

Before you hire a pimply Hollister T-shirt wearing Web designer, consider the big picture: a web site is a marketing piece. If your web designer has never asked you about your target market, it’s time to find an Internet Marketing firm.  If your web designer has never asked about your products and their benefits, it’s time to move on.  If your web designer has never asked you what your corporate vision or story is, it’s time to reconsider that relationship.

In order to make it online today, your company NEEDS the expertise of a marketing firm who ‘get’s it’. Call me today to discuss your Internet marketing plan: call 407-830-4550 or toll free: 866-998-6886 or visit my web site to learn more about Internet Marketing & Web Design.

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Consider Bob.  Bob is in debt up to his eyeballs.  He owes everyone and their brother money, he owes the credit card companies, he owes his credit union, he owes his mortgage company, heck he even owes Cousin Ralphie for that thing with the guy and the rabbit AND he keeps asking his boss for a big fat raise. Bob loves the finer things in life…. Lavish dinners, the latest Apple Products, a nice cigar now and again, weekend getaways, fine wines and whiskey. Bob also loves bragging about all of his purchases on his facebook wall:

Example:
“Bob Smith just spent the night at the Gaylord Palms, ate dinner at the Ritz Carlton, visited Disney, drank a pint of Johnnie Walker Red, smoked a case of Cubans, went to the clubs, tipped the doorman a few bills, bought Trixie a new diamond necklace, and visited the Apple store to pick up a new AppleTV and wants his Boss to know that I think he is a doofus.”

What Bob doesn’t know is that everyone of those bill collectors are paying attention.  They read Bob’s Facebook posts. They are annoyed that Bob hasn’t ponied up or taken any of their harassing phone calls. Even more fun, Bob’s boss is a friend of Bob on facebook and sees all of his posts, so while Bob is whining for a raise, Bob’s boss can see why. Bob’s bill collectors and Bob’s boss are building quite a case against Bob and could use it against him to collect debt or even fire Bob. Bob could be in trouble.

When you post your compelling wall updates on Twitter and / or Facebook please note the following: People are watching, listening, paying attention, taking screen shots and will use it ALL against you.  A bit of common sense goes a long way, a bit of self control can help you keep your job, can help you not irritate your bill collectors, could help you not instigate cousin Ralphie.  Just remember to use discretion and be aware that people are watching.

Be sure to catch me tomorrow, January 28, 2010 on The Daily Buzz (Nationwide) at 6:15 as I discuss social media with Mitch English and the dangers of inappropriate self disclosure!

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BE SOCIAL.

It seems so elementary, but people need people. The second you start making everything about you and your company, you’re doing it wrong.  Use social media to share your wisdom with your tribe, use social media to reinforce your brand, use social media to constantly improve your company and your level of customer service.  Social media is about talking and listening, it’s about contributing and building, it’s about transparency and being human.  The second you start using social media to SELL, SELL, SELL, you’re done.  People leave you, they move on to another tribe to learn and grow. Game over.

Need some help getting your social media campaign up and running? Give me a call: 407-830-4550.

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