how to get a steady stream of profitable customers through the internet

How to Get a Steady Stream of How to Get a Steady Stream of Profitable Customers Through Profitable Customers Through the Internetthe Internet

My Background

Don’t make the same mistakes I have……

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Techniques & Strategies

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More Techniques & Strategies

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There’s a Sad Truth “Experts” Don’t Talk

About

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Many of the techniques and strategies that make billions for large corporations don’t work for small businesses.

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Why?

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Reason #1

Large corporations have more time, money, and resources to

commit.

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Reason #2

Large corporations compete in markets where they must invest

in activities with low or unpredictable ROI.

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The Pareto Principle(aka the 80/20 rule)

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The Pareto principle

In any complex system, a minority of the inputs produce the majority of the outputs.

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In many businesses:80% of sales revenue comes from 20% of customers. 80% of complaints and headaches come from 20% of customers.

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Focus of this Presentation

How to put the Pareto principle to work in:Your MarketingThe Services You OfferThe Customers You Do Business With

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7 Stats that Drive Profit

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Track these every month:1.Number of Visitors2.% of Visitors that become Leads3.Number of Leads4.% of Leads that become Customers5.Number of Customers6.$ from Online Customers7.Profit from Online Customers

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Reputation Marketing

The Foundation of Your Online Success is Your Reputation

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Basic Truths of Reputation Marketing

The better and bigger your reputation, the less you have to spend on customer acquisition.

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Basic Truths of Reputation Marketing

The worse and/or smaller your reputation, the more you have to spend on customer acquisition.

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Basic Truths of Reputation Marketing

The less you spend on customer acquisition, the more opportunity you have to make a profit.

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The Ultimate Goals of Reputation Marketing:

To spend little to no money on marketing.To have so many leads that you can pick and choose your customers and the services you provide.

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Reputation Marketing in 3 Steps

Not getting customers from the internet? You haven’t effectively established:1.Who you are2.What you do3.How well you do it

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How to Fish for Customers

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How Many Fish are in the Sea?

Internet Users in US – 2014Total Population - 322,583,006279,834,232 Internet Users% of Population with Internet - 86.75%

Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/

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80% of Customers Shop Online

86% of survey participants have used the Internet to find a local business and 72% prefer to find information on local merchants via search. (WebVisible)

70% of U.S. households now use the Internet when shopping locally for products and services (The Kelsey Group; ConStat).

89% of US internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is ultimately made at a local business (HubSpot)

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Who are you?

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Who Are You?

Be consistent. Always use the same NAP:NameAddressPhone Number

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Common mistakes made with the Name:Adding or removing portions of the name (e.g. LLC or Inc).Changing to a new or similar business name after establishing another name for the same location.Using a name that is already established within the local market.

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How to Format Your Address:Start by looking how it appears on Google Maps and on USPS.com.Abbreviate the Street Address correctly (e.g. N instead of North, Rd instead of Road).Eliminate unnecessary punctuation. Only use it to separate Address 1 and 2, and City and State.Use the 5 digit zip code.

Ex. 8155 SE Deer Creek Ln, Ste B Milwaukie, OR 97222

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Best practices for phone:1.Use your main office line.2.Be very careful using a tracking phone number on your site. I wouldn’t do it.

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What Makes You Unique and Trustworthy?

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Trust Signals

Trust signals establish credibility and create connections.Who owns the business (family owned, former military)?Are you Licensed, Bonded, and Insured?# of Years your Company has been in Business# of Years your Company has served the Local Community# of Years your Employees have been in the Industry (individually and as a group)# of Customers You’ve Served# of Completed JobsIndustry Schooling and TrainingAssociations (Professional, Fraternal, Alumni, Religious)AwardsReviews (Google, Yelp, Houzz, Angie’s List, BBB)How do you serve your community?Other reasons you should be trusted

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What services do you provide?

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What are you fishing for?

Knowing your customers allows you to:Simplify your efforts and lower your marketing costs.Speak directly to your target customer.Plan for profit.

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Who is Your Dream Customer?

Who is Your Dream Customer?The products and services they purchase.The cities their properties are in.Property type (e.g. residential, commercial, HOA, golf course).What are their challenges/pain points? What do you help them solve?What do they value most? What are their goals? How much do they purchase?Can they turn into a repeat customer? If yes, what is their Lifetime Value?

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Your Bread & Butter Customers

Who are your Bread & Butter Customers?The products and services they purchase.The cities their properties are in.Property type (e.g. residential, commercial, HOA, golf course).What are their challenges/pain points? What do you help them solve?What do they value most? What are their goals? How much do they purchase?Can they turn into a repeat customer? If yes, what is their Lifetime Value?

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Your Least Desirable Customers

Who are your Least Desirable Customers?The products and services they purchase.The cities their properties are in.Property type (residential, commercial).What makes them undesirable?At what point can you throw them back in the water?How do you get rid of them in a non-confrontational way?How do you keep similar customers away without tarnishing your reputation?

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Where are the Fish Biting?

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We’re going to focus on 5 channels where you can find

customers.

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As we review each channel, ask yourself:Is this channel a good fit for your business?How much time and money are you willing to commit to this channel on a monthly basis?

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The Buying Cycle

3 Steps in the Online Buying Cycle:1.Research2.Compare3.Purchase

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Channel #1: Direct Traffic

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Channel #1: Direct Traffic

What is it? Visitors who manually enter your website to go directly your site.

How did they hear of your company? Through word of mouth, other sites, and marketing pieces (business card, door hangers, postcards, flyers).

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Channel #1: Direct Traffic

What are they doing?Finding out more about your company, services, and pricing.Determining if they can trust you.Deciding whether or not to contact you.

Where are they in the buying cycle?Step 2 – Compare & Step 3 - Purchasing.

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The Cost = Site Costs + Cost to Create and Distribute Marketing

Pieces

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Channel #1: Direct Traffic

Is it a fit for your business? Absolutely.

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Channel #2: Social Media

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Channel #2: Social Media

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What are they doing?SocializingLearningNetworking

Where are they within the buying cycle?Step #1 - Researching

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3 Myths of Customer Engagement

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The Corporate Executive Board conducted a study of more than 7000 consumers to determine the best ways to engage customers online.

Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/three-myths-about-customer-eng/

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Myth #1: Most consumers want to have relationships with your brand.Only 23% of consumers said they have a relationship with a brand. Relationships are reserved for friends, family and colleagues. What consumers really want when they interact with brands online is to get discounts.

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Myth #2: Interactions build relationships.Of the consumers who said they have a brand relationship, 64% cited shared values as the primary reason. Only 13% cited frequent interactions with the brand as a reason for having a relationship.

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A shared value is a belief that you and your consumer have about a higher purpose or philosophy.

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Finding a Cause

Choose a cause:You truly care about.You can commit to for the long term.That’s relevant to who you are and the services you provide (Don’t be the creepy guy at the party!).

Examples for the Green Industry: Green living / water conservationPet safetyJobs for vets

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Myth #3: The more interaction the better.

No correlation between the number of interactions and the likelihood that they will make a purchase or recommend you to others.

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Thought leaders promote thoughtfully. They share:Expert advice (from colleagues and their own)Current newsSuccess storiesOccasional coupon or discount

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The Cost = Your Time + Cost of Creative

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Is Social Media a Fit for Your Business?

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Channel #3: Referrals

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Key Stats

83% of buyers no longer trust advertising but most trust recommendations from users online (Formstack)

72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from real people – Search Engine Land, 2012

Restaurants with 3.5 stars on Yelp are 63% more likely to be full then those with just 3 stars – a half star difference! (UK Guardian 2012)

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Local Search Results

Landscaping San Rafael CA#1 – 4 - Yelp.com#6 - 7 – Houzz.com#8 – BBB.org#9 – YellowPages.com

Landscaping Concord CA#1 - #3 – Yelp.com#4 – YellowPages.com#6 – AngieList.com#7 – HomeAdvisor.com#8 – BBB.org#9 – Superpages.com#10 – Thumbtack.com

Landscaping San Francisco CA#1 and 2 – Yelp#3 – Thumbtack#6 – Houzz#7 – Yellowpages.com

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Casting a Wide Net

Casting a Wide Net

There are many places you can go to get citations and listings. These listings: Drive traffic and customers.Contribute to your reputationConvince customers you are the company to work with.Make you more visible in search engines.

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A citation is a mention of your business name with another piece of business information (phone number, address, website).

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Check, Fix, Add

Follow this quick three step process - CHECK, FIX, ADD.1. Check to see if the listing is there2. If the listing is there, claim it and fix the NAP if it’s not 100% accurate.3. If the listing does not exist, create it.

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Set these profiles up first:Google My BusinessGoogle+FacebookLinkedIn

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Google My Business

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Google Places

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There are four primary data providers:Infogroup - http://www.expressupdate.com/searchAcxiom - http://www.databyacxiom.com/small-businesses.htmlLocaleze - http://www.neustarlocaleze.bizFactual - http://developer.factual.com/contribute-or-correct-data/

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Building Citations/Links

Maps:Yahoo! Local - http://local.yahoo.comBing Maps - https://www.bingplaces.com/AOL Local Search - http://yellowpages.aol.com

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Top Citation Sources for Lawn Services:1.YellowPages.com2.ServiceMagic.com (known as HomeAdvisor.com now)3.SuperPages.com4.Manta.com5.BBB.org6.Thumbtack.com7.Yelp.com8.Local.Yahoo.com9.Angieslist.com10.DexKnows.com

Source: http://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category

Top Citation Sources for Contractors1.Servicemagic.com (known as HomeAdvisor.com now)2.Yellowpages.com3.BBB.org4.Dexknows.com5.Angielist.com6.Superpages.com7.Manta.com8.Local.yahoo.com9.Thumbtack.com10. Facebook.com

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Top Citation Sources in San Francisco, CA1.Yelp2.Citysearch3.Yahoo Local4.Facebook5.SF Gate6.YouTube7.Superpages8.Service Magic (known as HomeAdvisor.com now)9.BBB

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Your Customers Can Destroy Your Nets

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Best practices for referrals:Set up as many listings and citations as you can. Most are free or have free options!Ask for reviews from trusted customers. Build them slowly over time with customers that are already engaged in that community.Monitor your reviews and respond publicly to negative ones. Review sites will notify you when you’ve been reviewed.

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Channel #4: Search Engines

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Referrals and search engines can produce a high volume of quality traffic, but getting the best spots won't happen overnight.

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Reputation Marketing

How long it takes to succeed depends on:1. How established your competition is2. How wide you cast your net3. How much effort you put into building your reputation4. How often you upset the fish

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What are keywords?

Keywords are the phrases that customers use to research and select a product or service.

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Key to Success

Pay attention to the terminology (aka keywords) customers use as they search online.

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Short vs Long Tail Keywords

The keywords phrases you want to rank for are:Reflect who you are or what you do.2-5 words long.

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Choosing Your Keywords

Step 1: Write Down The Services You Provide

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Choosing Your Keywords

Step 2: Use the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to find keyword phrases that customers use.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

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Choosing Your Keywords

Step 3: Choose keywords for each service.Does it accurately reflect who you are or a service you provide? How many people are looking for it?Are there any similar keyword phrases that are for the same service? How many people are looking for it?

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Step 4: Use these keywords on your site.

The more time you invest in keyword research, the wider you can cast your net.

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Channel #5: Paid Advertising

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Common types: PPC (Pay Per Click)GraphicSocial Media Advertising (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)

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Getting Your Money’s Worth Out of Pay Per Click:Start with Google AdwordsFocus on keywords that are for your most profitable servicesKeep an eye on how much it costs per Lead? Per Customer?

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Avoid advertising that makes you pay for impressions:The average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%. (Source: DoubleClick)Only 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on display ads (and some of them aren't even humans!). (Source: comScore)

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Which Channels are a Fit for Your Business?

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The only services I would pay for:Professional designActivities that generate Leads (mainly PPC)

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Most of what I’ve shown you here is free if you’re willing to put in some time.

How much time? 12-25 hours up front.15-60 minutes a month.More for social and content marketing.

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Building a Site that Converts

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Your site has .2 - 5 seconds to answer these customer questions:Can I trust you?Will I waste my money?Are you easy to do business with?

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What’s wrong with this picture?

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Keep it Simple! Your Site Exists to Convert Visitors into

Leads.

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Building an SEO friendly site:Identify the keywords that reflect who you are and what you do.Create one page for each service.

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Do:Titles: 55 charactersDescription: 115 charactersCompany name and main keyword on homepageAppeal to both search engines and target customers.

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Don’t:Skimp on designDon’t overdesignDuplicate text (from other sites, within your site)Steal images

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Site Checklist

Your phone number (60% of local business websites don’t have their phone number on them! – BIA Kelsey 2012)

Contact form above the fold The areas that you serve Associations/BBB credentials Testimonials Consumer ratings/reviews Promos/online discounts The services you provide (create one page for

each service and link to it from the homepage) Before & after pictures of jobs Pictures of staff (About Us page)

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Get Your Net in the Water!

Track these every month:1.Number of Visitors2.% of Visitors that become Leads3.Number of Leads4.% of Leads that become Customers5.Number of Customers6.$ from Online Customers7.Profit from Online Customers

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Recommended Resources

Marketinghttp://www.thesaleslion.com/http://blog.hubspot.com/

Search Engine Optimizationhttp://moz.com/bloghttp://searchengineland.com/

Persuasionhttp://socialtriggers.com/

Conversionhttp://conversionxl.com/

Socialhttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

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Internet Marketing Toolkit

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Questions, Need Help, Want this Presentation?

Email me:Ryan.moore@horizononline.com

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