Most business owners understand that fresh leads ultimately means more business. Therefore, having a powerful, steady stream of lead pouring into your business is not an option – it’s a must.

One way to accomplish this is with a customized Facebook Fan page that is built to specifically capture leads.

I’m sure you’re heard of Facebook… Yes, that site that currently has over 750 BILLION users? Any smart business knows they need to have a strong presence on Facebook if they want to continue to grow and prosper.   How does a lead capture Fan page work?

Let’s say a business prospect lands on your lead capture Fan page because it’s clean, attractive, and professional-looking. They get just enough information to pique their interest so they decide to take your free offer in exchange for their email address.

They now want to know more about you and decide to venture over to your website to get even more information… Not only that, but now that you have their email address, you can start communicating with them on a regular basis and work on converting them into a customer.

Can you see how this process can end up giving you an endless stream of new leads?  Ensure that your business is on the front lines. A sleek, real-time and inspirational Fan page will draw in customers who did not know they needed what you have to offer.

Put your advertising dollars in the right place. As a savvy business owner, harness the energy of social media fans who will “like” your business.

When you customize your Fan page, whether you are a small business, non-profit or service industry, your web presence and reputation will catapult your bottom line to high profits and product longevity.  Nothing motivates people more than liking what their friends like. When you use customized Fan pages to capture leads through social marketing, your business is sure to be a winner.

Although this is a pretty simple synopsis of what a custom FB fanpage can do for you, we know that they do work well. So many small business owners are busy with their day to day activities that they often overlook new social methods of getting new customers.  If you’re in that “too busy” category, give us a call. I’m sure we can help in some way, even if it is a tidbit of free info we’re known to give out.  call us- 409-356-4366.

Common Mistake #1- You have no call to action.

What is a call to action exactly?

Simple…

A call to action is a statement somewhere on your website telling the visitor what you want them to do.

Before you can have a great call to action you first need to decide exactly what action you want a visitor to take. Do you want them to sign up for a free quote, purchase your service or product right then, or should they contact you for a consultation?

Once you know what action you want them to take. Make sure it’s on your website so it stands out. There should be no confusion what you want your future customer to do. Here are some examples:

“Just fill out your information below to receive a comprehensive, no-strings-attached, completely free quote from one of our representatives.”

“Call now to receive a free quote from our sales team.”

“Simply fill in your name and email to get special discounts and deals sent directly to you.”

“Text “50% Off” to 41513 to receive Fifty Percent off your next pizza.”

Tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do. The more detail, the better.

Profit Tip: Focus on the benefits your visitor will have if they purchase your product or service. What will change in the way they live their life? Will their coffee be better in the morning? Will they save more money on taxes? How will their life be better because you showed up?

Common Mistake #2- Not Capturing Email Addresses

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who is a local business owner in League City. To protect the innocent we’ll call him John. He’s has an average business with an average income. He worked about 60 hours a week and spent the weekend at home with his family.

His company is a service business and he provides a good service that helps his clients. John is good at what he does.

There was a problem though… he wasn’t getting enough clients. This is something most business owners can relate to. At times, it’s hard to bring customers or clients through the door.

John’s business had a pretty good website. It had great information about John’s service and showed up on the first page of Google. What John didn’t realize was he was leaving a lot of money on the table.

It wasn’t until I showed him how to start collecting email addresses through a simple form on his site that he realized just how much he was missing out on.

I recently checked in with John and not only is his schedule full, he’s been able to raise the prices he was charging. He’s cut back to about 40 hours a week, instead of 60. Not too bad for one small change.

Even though the use of email has slowed some, it’s still effective.  The newest capture method is SMS text messaging, where you offer a discount coupon if your customer will text a keyword phrase to your account. You will automatically capture your customers phone number and then be able to text them valuable coupons instantly. Works great and text messages are opened 68% of the time, increasing your conversation rate significantly.

Profit Tip: Offering a free report that shares valuable information with your customers is a great way of bringing new buyers through your doors.

Common Mistake #3- No Google Places or,  A bad Google Places Page

The best way to make sure your business has a strong online presence is through the use of Google Places. If you’ve ever done a search for a local business on Google, you’ve probably noticed the Google Places listings at the top of the search results. They appear before the standard results, making them especially lucrative. It’s very important to make sure your business has a presence here!   I can’t cover in this short report all the details of what makes a good Google Places listing, or how to make sure your business gets in the top spots.

Profit Tip: The first step is to claim your listing. Simply go to your businesses place page and click where it says “Business Owner?” Can’t find your page? Call me at 340-998-4715 and I will show you how to activate it.

Common Mistake #4- Your Business isn’t on Facebook

Facebook has more than 800 million active users. (An active user is someone who has been on the site in the past 30 days.) At any given time half of them are logged in. Throw in the fact that almost all smart phones have a Facebook app and this is a place your business needs to be.

First, if you don’t have a Facebook account, go to http://www.facebook.com and set one up.

Next you’ll need to create a business fan page. A fan page allows your business to have presence on Facebook and gives you more control on how people on Facebook can interact with your page. For instance you can allow people to leave comments or not. Caution: Do not mix personal & business pages.

A fan page also gives you a great way to communicate with your customers. Just remember…

• Your news feed will be seen by your followers so don’t make it too long. Update them about things in relation to your business. It’s also a good to upload videos, post pictures, and links to keep your followers interested.
• Keep your news feed post informative, short and useful
• Don’t spam. Not only because it’s against Facebook policies, it will irritate potential customers.
  

Profit Tip: Never use your personal FB account for business. When you separate your personal and business account it creates a professional look for your business.

Common Mistake #5- You don’t have a mobile version of your website

Cell phone usage and popularity is growing 8 times faster than the explosion of computer desk top usage in the early 90’s.  Morgan Stanley Research estimates that by 2015, mobile web usage will be bigger than desktop usage. Your business can’t afford to overlook what Google calls “the mobile revolution.”

However, it’s estimated that 82% of businesses still don’t have a “mobile-friendly” website.

The problem is that traditional websites are built to be viewed on a computer screen instead of a small mobile phone screen. So viewing a traditional website that has not been “mobilized” is almost impossible. You have to scroll all over the place just to find the information you’re looking for.

In addition, most “non-mobilized” websites take forever or don’t even load on many mobile devices. Since 65% of people accessing the Internet use their smart phones to search for local businesses, as soon as they hit a website they can’t navigate or use, they quickly exit the site and move on.  Suggestion: Try searching for your business site & find your contact information.  See if you get the results you think you should have.

Can you start to see how businesses are missing out on some SERIOUS sales by not having mobile-friendly websites?

Profit Tip: While only 37% of emails sent from businesses are opened, 95% of all SMS or text messages are read within the first five minutes. Also in a study commissioned by Google, 75% of the test consumers said they would rather get notifications from businesses by text. Using text message advertising is a steadily growing method to build good relationships with your customers.

Common Mistake #6- Not Monitoring Your Online Reputation

People are talking about your company online whether you like it or not. That includes good AND bad reviews.

If you’re not monitoring your online reputation, you’re going to have two problems when this happens.

1) The negative review could wind up ranking high in the search results, so whenever somebody searches for your business, this could be one of the first things they see. The review might be accurate if a mistake really was made, or it might be completely inaccurate, but that potential customer has no way of knowing for sure (and is more than likely going to accept it as fact).

2) You won’t have a chance to explain the situation and fix it.

The solution here is to be a part of the conversation. Connect with your customers where these kinds of things might appear like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. so you can try to correct any mistakes quickly, or explain your side if necessary.

What makes these sites so important is many of them have apps for the iPhone or Android smartphones, so a lot of people use them to look up local businesses when they’re on the go. If they find a listing with low ratings or bad reviews, they can just choose another one and you will never know you lost a potential customer.

Profit Tip: These sites aren’t only about reviews, however. Many of them let you make special offers to your customers, in the way of discounts, giveaways and more. These special offers can be another great way to draw in both new and existing customers through their smartphones and other mobile devices.

Common Mistake #7- Your Website isn’t Search Engine Friendly

 Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing are the closest things to friends your website will ever have. So you have to make sure they play extra nicely together.

By following a few simple local seo rules, you can have your website ranking well in the search results for popular terms in your local area.

Let’s say you wanted to rank well for the search term, “Galveston Spa”. You’d want to make sure that you have that term on your main web page at least three times.

The best places to put search terms are…

The title tag

• The headline
• The first and last line of content
• The sidebar
• And in image ALT tags

Some of these may sound like Greek to you, so talk with your web developer about them and make sure that your website is up to date with terms you’d like to rank for.

Profit Tip: As a local business, you have a huge, wide-open opportunity to dominate your local competition by getting a free, prominent listing at the top of Google, using Google Places local search features. Google has made a large investment in becoming the most relevant search engine to its users, as Google understands that if you live in Texas City and you do a search for pizza, they know you want a pizza place in Texas City—not in Austin.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this short report. I’d love to have a chance to talk with you for even just 10 minutes about your current marketing strategy and check your local SEO to see if there is any way we can improve your traffic by using the power of the internet.

It’s possible that by making a few small changes, you could see huge results. So please, give me a call at 340-998-4715 and we can set time aside for a short 15-20 minute meeting & get to know each other.

 Thank you again for reading this report.

 Yours in business success,

Terry Hudson

If you would like to know more about small business development and how proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can build your business, get my  Free 20 page SEO  report  by going to www.webmarketingme.com and click the Get Free SEO Report.

If you are a local business owner, you might be struggling to figure some new ways to reach your local market affordably, and of course… effectively in 2012.

In our current economic conditions, many business owners find themselves in an uncomfortable situation i.e.,  you don’t have time or money to waste on marketing methods that won’t return the money spent to implement them.

One strategy I’m recommending to my clients is to implement a mobile marketing campaign  in their  business to attract a younger, affluent, hipper crowd?  Clients using this technology find mobile maketing is affordable, easy to implement & provides an excellent ROI.

SMS text message marketing is steadily growing in popularity. There are more cell phones on the planet than there are television sets and the trend in smart phone usage is growing at rapid rate.  Mobile marketing should not  be considered a trend, but as a smart tool to grow your business.

Here’s an important fact; according to the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) of Asia, there are more than 5.1 billion people in the world that own cell phones. There is no doubt that text messaging is one of the easiest and fastest ways to interact and build lasting customer relationships and also reach your target audience.

Many well known corporations use SMS text message marketing campaigns.  Why?  Simply stated, they boost their sales while decreasing their overall advertising costs. Companies such as Hilton, Pepsi Co., Guinness, Dunkin Donuts, General Motors, Toyota and too many others to mention here, have all experienced successful SMS text messaging campaigns.   There are many case studies you can find on the internet explaining their successes.

Wyndham Hotels even reported a rise of 15 to 25% in offer redemptions after a text campaign they began to increase customer loyalty.  What other form of marketing do you know of that can increase redemption/conversion rates that easily?

As a small business owner, you have to consider that these success stories will work for you as well .  Our world is changing!  Old forms of advertisement are ineffective and will not reach as many people as they once did.

Recent advancements in communication and technology have brought about great opportunities for local business owners.  Isn’t it time your business implements text message advertising and takes advantage of these opportunities as well.  It’s a fact that text messages are opened in 15 minutes or less and coupon conversion rates are 36% or higher.  These results are HUGE, and if you’re scratching your head wondering about how to jump ahead of your competition in 2012, this is one strategy that won’t break the bank.

Here is a golden opportunity to build customer relationships and get customers through your door.  Call me today to learn how you can get started with SMS text message advertising.

Terry Hudson

WebMarketingME
340-998-4715

If you aren’t monitoring your online reputation, you’re going to have problems that will hurt your business and chances are, if you’re not policing your reputation, you won’t even know it.

Problem 1- The negative review could wind up ranking high in the search results whenever someone searches for your business and might be one of the 1st businesses they see. The review might be accurate if a mistake was made or, it could be totally inaccurate.  However, that potential customer has no way of knowing for sure and most likely will accept it as fact.

Problem 2- As the business owner, you seldom have a chance to explain the situation and fix it before other potential customers see it.

The solution is to spend the time to monitor online reviews and be a part of the conversation.  Connect with your customers where these kinds of things might appear like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, CitiSearch, etc., so yo can try to correct any mistakes quickly, or explain your side if necessary.

What makes these sites so important is many of them have apps for the iPhone or Android smartphones, so  a lot of people use them to look up local businesses when they are on the go. If the find a listing with low ratings or bad reviews, they most likely will move on… and you will never know that you lost a  potential customer.

Profit Tip: These sites aren’t only about reviews, however.  Many of them let you make special offers to your customers in the way of discounts, giveaways, and more.  These special offers can be another way to draw in both new and existing customers through their smartphones and other mobile devices.

If you notice bad reviews and don’t know what to do about them, give me a call: 409-356-4366.

Terry Hudson
WebMarketingME

3 Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid:

1.  Choosing the wrong keywords.

Every page of your site should be effectively optimized for keyword phrases but not too many. This helps your page get found whenever someone uses a search engine to search for a keyword phrase you’ve optimized for.

If you optimize for relevent keywords, you’ll likely get an increase in website traffic from visitors looking for products and services you offer. However, if you optimize for the “wrong” keywords, you may not have an increase in traffic or may be found by searches close but not your relevent to your site.

When using a keyword research resource (Google Adwords Tool External,) you can determine how many times per month a particular keyword phrase is searched for. This is important because it won’t benefit you to optimize your web page for a term that no one cares about.

Also, you should type each keyword phrase into Google (or your search engine of choice) to see what results you find. If the results show you pages that are related to your own, you are on the right track.

If the results are completely unrelated, you should avoid optimizing for the keyword phrase and look for more targeted terms.

2. Overlooking adding a page title.

Each page of your website should have an effective & intelligent page title.  It’s also called the “meta page title.” This important  information is added to the html code itself and can be found at the top of the page.

The page title serves a few different purposes. First, it is displayed at the top of the browser window to let the visitor know what kind of information to expect on the page. It also

helps the search engines know what kind of content to expect.

This is why it is crucial that your page title include the keyword phrases you are optimizing for.

The page title also appears whenever someone finds your page through the use of the search engine. The page title information is used for the blue, clickable link that will take the searcher to your page.

Forgetting to include a page title may cause the search engines to add the term, “Untitled Document,” to your page. This looks quite unprofessional and can hamper your ability to

be found for important keyword phrases as well.

3.   Avoid using the same page title on every page.

While intelligent SEO shouldn’t be difficult, it does take work. Many times, we see webmasters using the exact same page title on every page of a site and this is cause for concern. This is a no-no.

Search engines index pages of your site, not your website as a whole. Your “meta page title” should include the keyword phrases you want to optimize a particular page for, and each page should be optimized for a unique set of terms. So good practice is to double-check that each page title is different and is tightly researched for the content for the content on all pages.

While there is more to effective search engine optimization, avoiding these three common mistakes will help you outrank the many sites that employ them.

It is very important that you are careful to perform complete keyword research. This cannot be over emphasized you should find keyword phrases likely to bring targeted traffic and to your new business.

Stay tuned for the next part of SEO mistakes to avoid.

1)   Diversity of Sources – having 50 tweets of a link from one account is not nearly as valuable as 50 tweets from 50 unique accounts.

2)   Timing – links that are shared shortly after an RSS feed first publishes a story may be indicative of Query Deserves Freshness (QDF), but tweets/shares of older pieces could be seen as more indicative of lasting value and interest (rather than just sharing what’s new).

3)   Surrounding Content – the message(s) accompanying the link may give the engines substantive information about their potential relevance and topic; it could also take the place of anchor texts, particularly on Twitter.

4)   Engagement Level – the quantity of clicks, retweets, likes, etc. could impact how much weight is given to the link.

As for the possible factors for determining Author/Social Authority:

• Quantity of Friends/Followers – Like links, according to Sullivan, it’s likely the case that having more friends/followers is better. However, he warns that low quality bots and inauthentic accounts are likely to be filtered. And Sullivan thinks that due to the challenges that bots and inauthentic accounts will be facing in acquiring followers/friends, the search engines will probably have an easier time spotting them than they do in weeding out spammy links.

• Importance of Friends/Followers – Again, just like links. If you are hounded by high “authority” followers, it can send a very good signal about yourself.

• Analysis of Friends/Followers Ratios – Much like the engines’ analysis of the editorial nature of links, consideration of whether a social user is engaging in following/follower behavior purely out of reciprocity versus true interest and engagement may be part of authority scoring. For example, if you have 100,000 followers and you follow 99,000 of them, and the engagement between you and your followers is slim, you’re likely not going to be recognized as authoritative as the owner of an account with 1,000 followers who are constantly engaged, retweeting, liking, sharing, etc.

• Topic Focus (Theme) / Relevance – The consistency or patterns between a person’s sharing behaviors could also be a consideration (using topic analysis and patterns in the sources of shared/tweeted links, etc.). Being an “authority” could even be subject-specific. For example, if a prominent SEO tweets links to celebrity news, it will have less of an impact as compared to when that person tweets links to a web marketing resource.

• Association Bias- Google and Bing probably has the ability to associate social authors with the sites/domains they’re part of and those that they’re independent from (Google Profiles comes to mind here).Source: Danny Sullivan