Use Video For Better Customer Engagement

One of the great things about being in the internet marketing business is I get to choose my customers.  There is more work than I could ever do so I get to say "no" if I don't believe in a business or a product.  Some I like so much I'll even make short quick video's myself.

Video is a great way to introduce your business and your products online.  Here is a quick video I made for Walt Garrison's Gourmet Texas Rub.  This is no store bought seasoning salt, this is a genuine Texas rub, created by a great Texan, and made in Texas.

So when you need some time away from business and just want to kick back and grill some delicious meat, give Walt Garrison's Gourmet Texas Bar-B-Q Rub a try

See the video and get some ideas for your business. Sorry No critiquing the actor, he is a bit rusty...

Buy the Rub.

Quick Start Keyword Checklist

If you read the quick keyword action plan, and a couple of the entries before that you should've come up with a pretty simple checklist. Just in case you didn't I'll include it here.

Quick Keyword Action Plan

One of the questions I get most often when I speak to a group is the same question matter what the group is. Without fail someone will walk up to me or call me after the class or send me an e-mail that says "okay I get all that great stuff, but how do I do it?"

One of the reasons I wrote the book “So, Now What?” was the number of people asking me that same question. They would tell me that they've taken all kinds of classes,  read all kinds of books and they still aren't sure what they're supposed to do. When I wrote “So, Now What?” I checklists and some worksheets right in the book to help people know exactly what to do in order to get onto the first step of a good business and a happy life.

What does this have to do with Internet marketing? Well the funny thing is I get the same question after Internet marketing classes. It doesn't matter if I teach a live class or a webinar, someone always has that question. So today I want to give you a quick action plan with some steps you can take to make sure you have the right keyword campaign for your Internet marketing. If you are still doing research for Internet marketing my very first suggestion in your first step is to get a Google ad words account. Google is at least 50% of all search marketing, and even though they're losing ground they are still the biggest and most important. Starting here will give you the best education you can get in exchange for your time.

Keyword Targeting For Small Business

Keyword targeting can be one of those make or break disciplines when it comes to Internet marketing. The reason the keyword targeting is so critical is because search engines have the ability to follow the clicks as they say. If you create an Internet marketing program based on the wrong keywords, when customers click your website and quickly leave because you targeted the wrong keywords, the search engines take note.

For Google ad words users, one aspect of the scores is called the quality score. If your keywords are poor and aimed at the wrong market your quality score declines.  The lower your quality score, the higher your cost per click. So now you have a downward spiral where your costs are going up and the people who are clicking are not your customers anyway so your sales are going down. Your website is losing position on the unpaid section (this is known as the organic search section) and your ads are increasing in cost because the quality score variable is going the wrong way.  It is the double whammy of Internet search.

Focus On The Perfect Customer

One of my favorite aspects of Internet marketing is the fact you have to focus. Any company that tries to market to everyone on the Internet is going to go bankrupt unless they sell something that everyone on the Internet wants to buy and will buy. Most people that will buy anything shop at Walmart.  On the Internet they're looking for something in particular. The trick is to figure out how they would look for you.

One of the things that separates every business is the owner and their personality as it evolves into the business. That uniqueness is what your customer is looking for and vice versa. When you understand exactly who your customer is and I'm not talking about every customer, but your best customer, you can do a lot better with Internet marketing and all of your marketing for that matter.

Focus On The Objective

The other night I had the pleasure of going to the new matchsticks movie premiere party. I haven't been to a premiere since I was a little kid and my dad's friend Dwight Brooks premiered his movie. One of the things that impressed me about the matchsticks movie THE WAY I SEE IT was the producer’s connection to his audience. Every single person in there was a skier or snowboarder. No one showed up just because it was a premier. The night that I attended, the premiere had three showings and I would estimate 350 people per showing.  Not a bad gig when we don’t even have snow yet.

At first it appeared a little strange that this premiere was being held in a hotel ballroom.  I would expect an established production company premiering a new movie to be in a traditional movie theater. After a while I realized this was by design. Scott Gallagher and his team understood that their customer would sit on the floor or stand in the back if that's what it meant to see the movie.  Sit and stand they did.  As a bonus, skiers featured in the movie like Ingrid Backstrom and JT Holmes were in the back of the ballroom signing posters and magazines.

Specialization Pays Off

One of the most difficult conversations I have with my clients on a regular basis is about focus.  As business owners, there is a mentality along the lines of "I don't just want my customers business, I want all the business."  The mentality of getting "all the business" is a very dangerous path in business.  Since the earliest days of commerce and civilization we have known that specialization helps grow businesses more effectively and therefore economies.

Even in the 4th Century, Plato found it worth mentioning:

All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else. - Plato