Piggybacking Off Of Successful Sites

In the previous post, I talked about my efforts with my divorce attorney site. The site has been relatively successful so far, but still has a long way to go. Well, I have started the same process with several other sites. I now have a DUI attorney site, a bankruptcy lawyer site, and a consumer credit counseling site. Those sites are not nearly as far along as the divorce site, but I am using the same processes, so I can only assume that they will eventually grow in traffic. So now the question is, can I use the success of those sites to my favor in developing this strategic internet marketing site? Basically, I will have links on those sites to the marketing site, and not do any of the directory submissions as done previously. Content would only be added through the blog, no articles or other forms of content.

My first thought in this is ethics. It is my belief, although I am sure a very unpopular belief, that the SEO business is for the most part going to go away. Most SEO companies promise that if you use their services then you will achieve top rankings in Google. Well, obviously not all sites can fit into the top 10 listings for a keyphrase… What I really have a problem though is that companies believe that they do not need to develop a quality site to be ranked highly. All they need to do is let a SEO company tweak keywords and add thousands of “links” to the site and they will get those coveted listings. In the long run, this does benefit anyone, as the internet will be run down with millions of poorly organized sites, and Google will struggle to serve up the quality sites first.

With that said, is what I am proposing ethical? My answer is yes, and here is why. I am basically developing a suite of loosely coupled websites, each providing information and acting as a broker between someone providing a service and someone needing a service. For the person needing a service, they only need to use that particular website. But for the person providing a service, this seems to fit more on the marketing site, not the more specific information sites. So I need a way to direct those providing services to the marketing site, which is by the way my primary service. And how do you direct someone to a site on the internet? Links of course! So it is my view that adding links from all the sites back to the marketing site provides a real value, not a fake value as in submitting to thousands of directories that no one will ever use.

Another thought on this is that of providing value. Anyone can put up a website that gathers attention and traffic, but does that site actually provide value to the internet? When I use the term value, it can be many things: legal information, entertainment, sports, business, etc… Value can be viewed differently by different people. An example of a site that provides value to me is Wikipedia. If I need an answer, more times than not Wikipedia has it. An example of a site that doesn’t provide value is a site that broadcasts some feed like site that only repeats information found in Wikipedia. To me, that site is worthless.

So does my site provide value? Here is how I am trying to achieve this. First off, the base marketing site contains general information on marketing and some information marketing 2.0. So hopefully that could help answer basic questions. More importantly than this I think, I have decided to try and provide value by blogging my attempts to build successful marketing web sites. I have put hours and hours in learning how to build and organize pages, and made more mistakes than you could imagine. Hopefully by posting my attempts, someone else will be able to make a quality site more efficiently.

I have no idea on how Google is going to view this marketing site, but in my view I believe that Google would prefer that people don’t tailor their sites around the search engines. I think the point of the internet is to have the end users in mind. We will see over the long run how this works out.

Divorce Website Marketing

About 8 months ago, I decided to try and create a divorce website that targeted Google searchers that were looking to find a divorce lawyer. I started out trying for local keywords, and since I live in Dallas, I went after the keyphrase “Dallas Divorce Lawyers.”

At first I thought that this would not be such a hard endeavor — I read the book Search Engine Optimization for Dummies and The Idiots Guide to Growing your Business with Google. I subscribed to blogs such as Jim Westergren’s SEO Blog, and of course Matt Cutts blog (Google employee), and then was off and running.

Well, not so easy. Those keywords are very competitive, and I found myself competing against websites that were quite a bit older and established than mine. After a month or so, my little website was getting lost way down in the SERP’s, and by way down I mean around 125! My strategy was simple back then. Get as many pages as I could with “Dallas divorce lawyer” and “Dallas divorce attorney” in it, and get as many links pointed to my site with those keywords as well.

From what I have experienced, this is not enough though. The following is the way that I have gotten to the first page for those keywords. I still am bouncing in and out of the first page, but none-the-less, its close. And take this advice for what it is. I’m sure there are better and more efficient ways to accomplish this, but I have no idea what those methods are.

1. Content

I’m sure there are no surprises here as you have heard it again and again. You need a lot of it, and it needs to be ORIGINAL. I hired a web content writer to get this done for me. She wrote pages on the main concepts of divorce, and is writing divorce articles weekly. I believe that adding pages regularly is essential as your site will be seen more favorably. Some of the content contains my keywords, some does not. Basically, I am building traffic, and trust with Google. The other method of content is the Divorce Blog, which I maintain myself. I recommend signing up with BlogCatalog as well as this will dramatically increase traffic to your blog. Check out my BlogCatalog User Profile.

2. Keywords in the Title

The title of your pages is extremely important to search engines. I spread out the keywords throughout the site. This improves my chances greatly, but has one important negative side effect that I will go into below.

3. Links

This is another one that everyone knows, but it is important to do this in an ethical manner. The old days of buying hundreds of thousands of links is over. You must do this the old fashioned way: DIRECTORIES and LINK EXCHANGES (with relevant sites). I use a Dallas SEO Company to help with this. You can also check out the directories maintained in the Strongest Links website to help out. A new thing that I am trying out is giving the user the ability to do this without me having to do anything, as seen on this “Add Your Link” page. Then once your site slowly gains rank, you will have a more legitimate chance that the bigger sites will trade links with you, but that takes time… I believe that it is also very important to provide external links to other sites throughout your site. If you reference something, then link to it — its as easy as that.

Unfortunately, that is it. There are no tricks to becoming favorable with Google, you must spend a lot of time developing your site and do it in an organized manner. If you do this, and keep it up for an undetermined amount of time, believe me, you will be rewarded.

I mentioned before that there is a negative side effect to spreading keywords across many pages. What happens is that most likely the searcher will end up on the main page of the site. This is not exactly an optimized site! So now I am trying to cure this. I’m sure this will directly affect my ranking for the overall keywords, but hopefully after some time the users will be directed to the correct page, which I have targeted as http://www.straightdivorce.com/dallas_tx_attorneys.asp. In a future blog post if I am successful then I will provide all the details!

The Importance of a Marketing Strategy

In a highly technological and very competitive world that is constantly changing, the one constant you can always count on is the need for an effective marketing strategy. No matter what type of company you have, in order to thrive in today’s economy, it’s critically important to implement a marketing strategy that works. But in today’s market, it’s no longer enough to just have a traditional marketing strategy; nowadays, to ensure that your company stays competitive, you must also include marketing from a customer-oriented approach.

What Exactly Is Marketing?

Many people confuse the term marketing with selling. In actuality, the term “marketing” came into being more than half a century ago, although the idea of marketing has been around forever. While marketing supports the selling process, it takes a different approach by looking into who your customer is, what they need and want and how to get people to buy. In effect, marketing is more about putting a plan in place regarding how you’re going to reach your target audience. To put a good marketing strategy in place, stop and ask yourself how you feel about your customers. If you don’t put them first, more than likely you’re not going to be successful.

What Approaches Will Work Best?

As you carefully consider the importance of incorporating a marketing strategy, the first thing you need to do is explore which approach will have the greatest impact on your business and what will help you reach your target audience. Think about what you want to communicate, how you want to communicate, how you want your customers to see you and which of the different strategies will work best for your type of business. There are hosts of marketing strategies to consider such as press releases, customer relationship management, call center solutions, workflow management, articles, white papers, etc. but the key of course is to generate more sales. Regardless of which strategy you chose, your goals are achieved by skillfully executing a strategy that conveys the quality of your product or service, and also sends a clear message as to how you deal with your customers.

Your Approach Must Be of the Highest Caliber

Whether you operate a large corporation or you run a small Mom and Pop type atmosphere, your marketing approach has to be of the highest caliber. Even smaller companies have to consider some form of marketing so that it attracts new business. And if you’re a larger company, than you need to constantly be aware of your competitors. Have you ever noticed how all the big companies keep their names out in front of you all the time? They know that although there are a lot of ways to market a business, the bottom line is that no one method can guarantee 100% success all the time. What that means to your company is that you have to continuously market your company and you must try a few different things before finding the right marketing strategy for your business.

Why Customers Buy

While there is absolutely no way to know exactly what your potential clients are thinking or what will work for any particular business, based on past successes and lots of statistics, when planning a marketing strategy, you want to try and figure out what would cause your customers to buy. Mostly, customers buy products and services when they feel confidence in the seller, and while there are countless methods and approaches that can help build a level of trust with your intended audience, it is a proven fact that how you present yourself makes all the difference to your business. In fact, investing in a good marketing strategy is critically important to your success and that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on your marketing strategy. What it does mean is that every time you share information about your business, whether it’s through e-mail, web site, promotional material, business cards or in letters, you are always representing yourself. Which is why every aspect of marketing should be impeccable.

Marketing Tools That Work Best

So, while there are no guarantees that any one strategy will work every time, there are a few that have proven to get results. The first is a press release. A press release has proven time and again to get the attention a company deserves. No, there are never any assurances that an editor will pick up your story or that your press release will show up on the front page of a popular newspaper, but the potential of a good press release is staggering. As a marketing tool, a press release is one of the least expensive methods for promoting a product or service as it gets the greatest amount of attention. Another powerful tool is writing articles that share your expertise and demonstrate your level of competence. In other words, an article can clearly show the reasons your product or service will benefit your intended audience. And when an article is well written, shares informative, interesting material and gives something of benefit to your audience, you are building credibility about yourself in your field of endeavor.

Attracting Your Target Market

It is unmistakable that the marketing approaches and strategies available are extensive but in order that you attract the target market you’re eager to draw in, you must maintain a competitive edge by choosing an effective marketing strategy. Some of the keys to a successful marketing strategy are

1. Communicating with your customers on a regular basis.
2. Taking the time to define what your intended audience needs and giving it to them.
3. Keeping all your promotional material current.

So, if your goal is to position your company in the forefront and to remain highly competitive, the primary key is getting a positive reception to your product or service. You can achieve that by developing and providing a flawless marketing strategy that gets results.

Translating Marketing 1.0 to 2.0

The following is a list of well-established, traditional marketing concepts. As we all slowly move on to Marketing 2.0, it is important to draw parallels between the two.

Commercials

The tried and true way to get your product/message across is marketing through the television. Marketing 2.0 expands on this by adding in product placements. Just watch any of the new movies coming out and watch for the bottle of Coke.

Press releases

When a company needs to announce anything that has news value, traditionally the best method for this is to put out a press release. This is quickly being replaced by the blogosphere as companies are using blog posts to release the newsworthy information.

Direct (snail) mail

This parallel is pretty straight forward as companies now rely heavily on email.

Push content

Push content is where some form of information is sent (pushed) to the client without the client requesting it. This can be a very annoying “convenience”! With the arrival of search engines like Google, and search engine marketing (SEM), pull content is far more desirable for all involved.

This is just a small subset of parallels that can be made between marketing 1.0 and marketing 2.0. Comments are more than welcome for additional parallels that I surely have missed!

Collaborative CRM

As customers demand more and more interaction, there is a need to provide a solid infrastructure that focuses on providing multiple levels of support, including questions, complaints, and customer issues. This is where Collaborative Customer Relations Management (CRM) comes in.

Collaborative CRM centralizes information within the varying departments of a business (sales, marketing, technical support). This wealth of information is then used to improve the overall customer service experience.

These collaborative systems are very useful in that they give organizations far more flexibility than other standard automated solutions for assisting customers and solving problems. However, as with any system that is focused on flexibility, time must be sacrificed, as more people will have to be involved, and training is usually necessary.

Name Branding with Google

Getting people familiar with your company has been a primary part of marketing since it began. Why do companies like Coke or McDonalds advertise so much? You already know their products and will keep buying them even if they didn’t have that clever ad in the Super Bowl. The answer is to keep their brand a house hold name.

The problem with starting a new website is that you are quite so fortunate because noone knows your company, and noone cares. So lets say that you have already picked out a domain name that is perfect and that you have used search engine optimization to reach the first page in Google’s organic search. Your traffic is steady now and you are making money. No need to start paying for clicks now right? Depending on your business, this is the wrong attitude.

Funny math comes into play for this. Lets say that for every 100 impressions in the organics 20 people click on your link. If you are soley using AdWords, then for those same 100 impressions you would receive only 10 clicks. Logic tells you that you should stick to only the organics. Why would you pay for clicks when you can get more clicks for free anyway? The answer is name branding, albeit a different sort of branding than the traditional branding because you have to build that brand in a hurry, as in you have about 10 seconds to build it! Studies have shown that if you combine both organics and pay per clicks in the search engine, you would receive something like 50 clicks. Thats right: 10+20=50.

I said before that this depends on your business though. The reason for this is that you need to be actually making money off of the clicks. If not, then you are just throwing away money. Even if you weren’t getting those extra 20 clicks, if you are making money using AdWords then why wouldn’t you use it?

In conclusion, having your site show up several times in just one search builds confidence in the end user because you have branded yourself better than the site above and below you in the organics. Use both organics and pay per clicks and make as much money as you can!

Marketing 2.0

With the rise of the new Web 2.0, Marketing 2.0 has been developed to keep marketing up with the internet’s growth. With the new medium and outgrowth of technology, Marketing 2.0 accounts for the internet customers doing their research and buying online. These savy customers do everything without the guidance of advertising and marketing campaigns and messages, they make their decisions based on friends, their family, their collegues, and additional networks.

The core of Marketing 2.0 is content that is real and authentic that starts educated conversations that the purchasing decisions will be based on. Much of the creative concepts that are associated with traditional marketing techniques are left behind as marketers much focus on content concepts.

Since there are such major differences in how we think of marketing, there have to be changes in how marketing gets created. For example, marketing agencies that utilize marketing 2.0 concepts have to use new processes, skills, and deliverables to brand, engage customer, and sell to clients. Colleges are forced to update their curriculum, and hire professors that are fluent in marketing 2.0. Overall, the internet has completely shaken up how marketing is thought of all the way to the core definitions. With the rapid growth in new ideas, these concepts are sure to keep changing and growing right along with the web.

Three More P’s of Marketing?

In earlier posts, we have discussed the standard four Ps of marketing, and also the web 2.0 four Ps of marketing, but could there be more? Thanks to services marketing, the answer is yes. All of the marketing Ps combined together form what is know as the extended marketing mix. Below is the three Ps of services marketing.

1) People - These are the people that come into direct contact with the customers. They serve an important role in that they have a direct impact on the overall customer satisfaction.

2) Process - Represent all of the processes that go into providing a service to the customers.

3) Physical evidence - Services are different from products in that they are considered intangible objects. There is no way to deliver or “touch” the service. Physical evidence refers to providing the potential customers a way to experience what the service will be like. Examples of using physical evidence are testimonials, case studies, and demonstrations.

The Web 2.0 Four P’s of Marketing

Thanks to web 2.0 and the new internet marketing paradigm, additional “Ps” are needed to define marketing. View the prior post that defines the traditional 4 P’s of marketing.

1) Personalization - Using the internet as a medium to customize products and services to the end user. Companies like Amazon.com and Dell pioneered this concept, but sites such as MyYahoo and MySpace have taken this to a new level.

2) Participation - This involves letting the end user participate in what the actual brand stands for, the overall direction of the brand, and in some cases what advertisements to run for the products and services.

3) Peer-to-Peer - Marketing through peer networks and communities. Giving the end users a break from all of the disruptive marketing like popups and in-your-face ads.

4) Predictive modeling - Using predictive analytics and algorithms like the neural network in marketing strategies.

The Four P’s of Marketing

1) Product - This is the actual good or service that the marketing effort is based on. This can often be very broad in scope and deal with warranties, guarantees, and customer support.

2) Pricing - Setting the price for the good or service being offered.

3) Promotion - Includes advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion for getting the word out on the company, brand, and product.

4) Placement - Refers to what distribution methods are used in getting the product to the customer.