I got this in my inbox today and was compelled to warn others about this.  It looks like a legitimate Facebook friend request email, but when you look a little closer, it’s anything but legitimate. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a phishing scam disguised as a legitimate Facebook friend request.

OK, it’s not truly “new” but it is important enough to warn others about.

First of all, what is a phishing scam?  Wikipedia’s article on Phishing describes it well:

Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging,^[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to deceive users,^[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.^[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and (according to its creator) the first recorded use of the term “phishing” was made in 1995. The term is a variant of fishing,^[4] probably influenced by phreaking,^{[5] [6]} and alludes to “baits” used in hopes that the potential victim will “bite” by clicking a malicious link or opening a malicious attachment, in which case their financial information and passwords may then be stolen.

The first thing that tipped me off was the “From” email address: an AOL.com email.  Facebook will only use Facebook email to send you requests and notifications – never something that just anyone can set up, such as an Aol, Yahoo, gmail or hotmail address. So that’s the first sign this was a Facebook phishing scam.

That was a dead giveaway, then I decided to blog about this and looked a little further to share additional information to help keep you safe online.  Whenever you want to see where a link goes, you can just rest your cursor (mouseover) the link and it will show you what URL the link goes to.  Sometimes, usually in a browser, it will show it in the bottom bar of the browser on the left side.  In this case, within Outlook, it shows the URL near the link itself.

As you can see, that is most definitely NOT a Facebook.com link.

So what would happen if you clicked on the link? Well, I didn’t click on it because I know better, but I’m guessing that it would most likely take you to a page that looked like a Facebook login page, and when you enter your user name and password it probably just captures the information and they have control of your Facebook account.

Alternatively, it could be something more malicious than that – they could hijack your browser, install some sort of malicious virus or other malware, or who knows what?

So surf safely.  Only accept friend requests (…etc.) from within Facebook.

Avoid Facebook phishing scams, and others as well.  These Phishing attempts are not limited to just Facebook – they masquerade as legitimate emails from LinkedIn, your bank, credit reporting services, and many, many more. Some will ask you for your social security number and other information that the thieves can then use to steal your identity.  Scary stuff.

Here’s a Marketing Failure you can certainly avoid making.  In the interest of helping you avoid making marketing mistakes and wasting or losing money, we’ll periodically feature examples of marketing failures.  Mistakes should be something to learn from, whether they are your own mistakes or someone else’s failure.  We all make them – the smarter among us learn from them and especially learn from others.

So here goes, for the marketing failure of the day:

If you have to make a phone call, it’s not an online special.

Believe it or not, this is a screen shot from an actual web page.  I’ve masked out the company name and the phone numbers in an effort to avoid further embarrassment to the “guilty party,” but have otherwise not altered the image at all.   I came across this site while doing competitive intelligence for a car dealership client, and the company in question sells millions of dollars a year – so you’d think they’d have someone savvy doing their marketing and making sure they make the best impression possible.  Instead, they came up with this little gem of a marketing mistake:

When in doubt, use a little common sense.

I wonder how many sales they lost from this?

W3 Group’s Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, David B. Wright, was part of the expert panel in the Promote Your Passion event in Atlanta, GA March 15, 2012.

David B. Wright, Muhammad Siddique, Jason Oman and Kay Rice at Promote Your Passion Atlanta March 2012

Tracey Walker, Jason Oman, David B. Wright, Kay Rice, Muhammad Siddique, Colin Daymude, Brad Fallon, Joey Smith

“It was an honor to be a part of such an elite group of marketing experts,” says David.

Promote Your Passion, founded by Caren Glasser, hosts high-level events around the U.S.

The mission of Promote Your Passion is to empower entrepreneurs to live their passion — and get paid doing what they love. Our promise is to give you rich real-world ideas and know how that will help you take your business to the next level.

Internet Marketer PRO Lee Goff is the Chief Web Officer of Guerrilla Marketing. Lee’s extensive knowledge on SEO, Web Marketing Strategy, Testing, Conversion and the use of the Internet as a tool for business in every facet is unsurpassed in the industry.  Utilizing strategic partnerships with some of the world’s best market-ing and software Lee has been accurately positioned as a leader in the web world. Through his affiliations and experience Lee is able to bring his knowledge to audiences across the country on how to make the Internet work for all businesses and how to understand business from an Internet marketing standpoint

Networking PRO Casey Eberhart is the co-author of the book “Stepping Stones to Success” along with Deepak Chopra and Jack Canfield. He’s made it his mission over the years to collect and connect: he collects relationships and connects people so they can do business together. Founder of the popular blog site, TheIdealNetworker.com, his training programs employ a series of easy to follow steps that will help you reach your true potential whatever industry your are in.

Sales PRO Scott Schilling is the founder of Schilling Sales and Marketing Inc.—an organization committed to providing Inspired Answers to Today’s Challenges through sales training, consulting, coaching and implementation strategies. He is the master in the art and science of selling.  He comes from the Heart, presents with passion and demonstrates the very sales skills he teaches.

Joint Ventures PRO Miranda Larson is an experienced JV Manager.  Her focus is creative business development and relationships on all types of events that speakers, authors, internet marketers, information marketers and entrepreneurs find necessary to make their businesses successful in today’s market. She has developed the JV Matrix that includes several different mastermind groups and coordinates JV’s in an array of business genres.

Passion PRO Caren Glasser has dedicated her personal and professional life to communicating and connecting with people. As a result, she has learned a lot about what it takes for people to create positive experiences in their lives.  Today, she focuses on helping people connect and create better lives for themselves.  She produces Promote Your Passion events and shows the value of how comF5 eMarketEngine can help businesses with their online marketing.

In addition, the following experts join us on an expert speakers panel:

Tracey Walker, Jason Oman, David B. Wright, Sheila Stewart, Kay Rice, Muhammad Siddique, Colin Daymude, Brad Fallon, Joey Smith and Tommy Lee

Muhammad Siddique a.k.a Siddique is a Joint Venture Broker, B2B Sales Lead Generation Expert and LinkedIn Strategist who produces results for B2B clients on harnessing social media and the digital space to bring brand awareness directly to businesses. His work includes being a joint venture broker, marketing on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and hundreds of other social media sites. Siddique partners with companies and creates new ways to grow revenues by leveraging hidden assets you have and you do not even know about.

Colin Daymude has a rich and diverse background in marketing, personal finance, human resources and team building. He shares his expertise as an international speaker, trainer, coach, author of four books and as the Vice President of Chapter Development at Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle. His position at GKIC gives him access to some of the best marketing minds of our time as he leads and trains top business advisors around the country.

Kay Rice, M.Ed.,  is a Wellness Consultant, Professional Speaker, Author, Workshop Facilitator and Corporate Wellness & Nutrition Coach.  She has worked with or studied under some of the top experts of our time such as Deepak Chopra, T. Harv Eker, Jack Canfield, and has been through some of the top Trainer Programs in the country.  Kay has authored several books including The Yoga of Wisdom and Understanding, Work Smarter Not Harder! Lose that Excess Fat Forever, and Your Holiday Feast.  She is a regular contributor to Avoid Medical Errors Magazine.

Jason Oman was a featured Success Story on the TV Infomercial, Creating Wealth. He has studied and spent time with many successful self-made millionaires.  He is a #1 Best Selling Author of Conversations with Millionaires & also Conversations with Female Millionaires. He then created a Step-by-Step Millionaire Money Formula from the strategies he learned virtually all Self Made Millionaires use to create wealth and success. He is passionate about ‘sharing the wealth’ and helping people make their dreams of success a reality!

Tommy Lee is proud to be launching his Black Belt Peak Performance Business Program worldwide in 2012 after spending the last sixteen years coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs and building two nationally recognized martial arts studios.  This program will be accompanied by an elite mastermind series unlike any other.  He has been seen on NBC, ABC, in USA Today as an Emerging Leader and will be releasing three books in 2012 (two of which are co-authored with Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield).  He is known internationally as a thought leader, entrepreneurial innovator and has personally been recognized by Chuck Norris for business contributions.

Sheila Stewart has been referred to as a serial entrepreneur.  She built her own international advertising agency from scratch (literally with only $5,000) to a team of over 150. She has worked with the likes of Warner Bros., Hard Rock Café, Ernst & Young, Doubletree Hotels and Parke Davis.  She sold off her agency in 2005 and has followed her passion by applying systems and strategies that work for Fortune 100 companies to small businesses.  She has written the Power-Injected Marketing Toolkit (24-book system), Backwards in High Heels – a Woman’s Guide to Succeeding in Business and 99 Killer Business Ideas.  She has been interviewed on ABC, NBC, Fox and various radio shows and in print publications.

David B. Wright is a top-ranking author and is President & Chief Marketing Officer of W3 Group, a marketing firm that helps businesses get more business.  David provides marketing services ranging from high-level strategic direction down to the tactical implementation including SEO, mobile, local, social, video marketing, online PR, and more. David has done business around the world and has been quoted in numerous publications including Inc. Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, AMEX Open Forum, About.com, and Business Insider.

Joey Smith has well over a decade of fast-paced and laser-focused experience in technology management in various industries. These include training, development, technology consulting, telecommunications, media communications, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale and retail. While achieving personal effectiveness and business success, he has gained extensive experience in developing leaders, excellence programs, quality training and customer service.

Tracey Walker is a top producer and documented sponsoring machine in the internet marketing and network marketing niches. She is known for her class, her style and her down-to-earth yet “no-nonsense” approach to blogging, and making money online. She has worked with hundreds of marketers and has coached countless people on the marketing skills and techniques required to generate real dollars! If you have not already connected with Tracey, come out from under your rock and let her help you make a full-time income, part-time online! NOW!

Dana McManus, Joey Smith, Muhammad Siddique, Jason Oman and Kay Rice

Mine certainly has been a victim of this…my website, while effective from some standpoints, isn’t where I want it to be yet, and that’s partially because I’ve been busier working on things for my clients and not as much time on my own website.  Especially when a business is starting out and growing (or struggling to grow), entrepreneurs often find themselves using all their time working on things for their clients, and not working on things that matter for their own business.

Work ON your business, not just IN your business

This is a rather insidious thing to let happen – it’s not always obvious when you’re caught in that trap, until you suddenly realize, “wow, my website looks awful” or “no wonder I’m having trouble attracting new clients – I haven’t been focusing on bringing them in!”

Or any of a number of other problems.

The solution?  Spend a certain amount of time, at least every week, if not every day, working ON your business.

That’s BEFORE you do things for clients, check your email, go to yet another networking event, or spending time on Facebook… (unless, of course, Facebook truly is a valuable part of your marketing strategy)

So what kinds of things can you do to work ON your business?

Well, that varies from company to company, and each company is, to some extent, different.  But here are a few of the top things to focus on when working ON your business.

1) Marketing.

Marketing, marketing, marketing.  I know, since I run a marketing company, that sounds biased, but it’s valuable advice.  Without marketing, in some shape, form, or fashion, sales trickle off and in some cases disappear entirely.    And a sad thing happens when sales don’t come through.  Nothing.  Nothing to grow the business, or even to keep it going.

2) Working on your business processes.

(Image courtesy of ctcorp.com)

This is invaluable.  The old expression “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” just doesn’t hold true for business.  If it ain’t perfect, it’s broke.  So spend a little time each week, or at least each month, working on some way to improve something in your business. Your profits will thank you for it.

Besides, working on processes is a primary factor in being able to eventually step away from your business, not just create a job for yourself.  After all, if you’re irreplaceable in your business, how will you ever be able to take an extended vacation, retire, sell the business, or even have the business survive an extended illness or accident?  If your goal is to eventually step away from the business, you NEED to create a business that can run without you.

3) Press

(Image courtesy of businessesgrow.com)

This should be a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy. I’ve had good success with it, and am continually looking for opportunities to provide value by sharing my expertise and experience.  Journalists are always looking for experts to quote in their stories, so it’s a win-win for everyone.  For an example of some of the results I’ve gotten for myself and W3 Group Marketing, check out our press page.

4) Strategy

Where do you see your business heading?  Strategy and tactics go hand in hand, and for successful businesses, the strategy is what drives the tactics and the day-to-day activities.  Actually, this should have been first if I’d ordered these by importance, but I chose to share this key point last so that it will hit home.   Take this conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, for example:

Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn’t matter, as long as…
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go.

(Quoted from IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/quotes)

Well if you don’t care where your business is going, you’re more likely to be one of those X% of businesses that fail within the first 5 years.  I say X%, because the stats vary so much – some sources said over 50%, some said as much as 95%, and everywhere in between.

But if you do care, you can benefit from investing some time working on your strategy.  And if you need help, invest in it.  Get a business coach, hire a company that does this, become part of a mastermind group, whatever it takes – do something.

So what do you do if you’re stuck on any of the above factors?  We at W3 Group can help you with any or all of the above.  Just enter your name and email address in the form at the upper right of this page, or if you need immediate help call 404-669-6682.  We’ll be glad to help you however we can.

You’ve probably heard of Viral Marketing.  You may have heard of a Viral Video.  Here’s an example and analysis of some brilliantly executed viral video marketing by LG for one of their flat panel TVs.

First, what is Viral Video?

According to Wikipedia,

A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email. Viral videos often contain humorous content and include televised comedy sketches, such as The Lonely Island‘s Lazy Sunday and Dick in a Box, amateur video clips like Star Wars Kid the Numa Numa videos, The Evolution of Dance, Chocolate Rain on YouTube; and web-only productions such as I Got a Crush… on Obama. Some eyewitness events have also been caught on video and have “gone viral” such as the Battle at Kruger.

I found a helpful image on the Music 3.0 blog that clearly shows the more common types of videos that go viral:

Now here’s the viral video:

While it is risky for a manufacturer to essentially advertise their product being stolen, this particular viral video marketing effort was effective – now when I think of a thin flat panel TV, LG is the first to come to mind.

So let’s look at what elements of the video make it an effective viral video marketing effort:

1. The video looks realistic enough to be believable – it doesn’t appear to be a video marketing effort.
2. The video is outlandish enough to be something you’d be likely to share – in fact, as of this writing the video has over 3.7 MILLION VIEWS.
3. The video features the product in a way that’s subtle enough that most people probably don’t realize that the video is designed to promote the LG brand.
4. It’s not obvious anywhere that it’s a commercial, or even intended to be associated with the brand. The YouTube account where this is uploaded has the name “anlishni” – which has no apparent connection with any corporate brand name I know of.  There’s no indication of Video SEO or other tactics to maximize views, or even any other videos on that user’s channel that could connect the dots to other video marketing efforts.
5. The video title is very simple, and isn’t even capitalized. “smart thief caught on cam” piques curiosity.  This also furthers the perception that it’s a real security camera video uploaded by an average person.
6. The video description is short & simple, as if some ordinary person uploaded the video to share – it didn’t try to sell the product or the brand, just the view. “Check out what this guy did in broad daylight!”
7. The video title also uses a subtle psychological trigger to associate “smart” with LG, as if the thief was smart to choose an LG instead of another brand.  This helps reinforce that LG is a “smart” choice.
8. The thief is making eye contact with the camera – a little odd at first, but it helps you “connect” with him in an bizarre sort of way.  This is one giveaway that it’s not a “real” security camera video but a marketing effort. Still, it’s like he’s got his eye on a store employee to try to make sure he’s not being watched.  Walking backwards during part of the video, while still looking at the camera, also adds to the oddball nature of the video, subtly builds suspense and keeps the viewer watching to see what he’s going to do next.
9. Since it doesn’t overtly show the product until the end, it encourages you to watch the video again to see if he really was carrying it the whole time.  It’s visible but not noticeable until the last segment of the video.
10. The very end of the video lingers on the store entrance with the LG poster in the window that advertises “The World’s Slimmest Television” with the LG logo.  It’s the last thing you see, which helps reinforce LG’s presence in your mind.  It also lingers a few extra seconds after the store employee runs after the thief, further building suspense – is someone else going to run after him, too? Is something else unexpected going to happen?  That few extra seconds also gives the mind time to absorb what your eyes just saw, before the video ends and other suggested videos are shown.  This also helps reinforce the message of the video as well as give you time to read the LG poster in the window.

Video marketing can be a powerful way to grow your business, build your brand, expand your brand awareness, and drive sales.  Viral videos can be extremely effective, but not all videos will get past that tipping point and go viral, even if they’re intended to do so.  Stay tuned for more marketing tips and strategies.

How can you use these insights, tactics and strategies to grow your business?

My company, W3 Group, provides services in an area that is, unfortunately, festering with swarms of sharks.  That area is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. These “sharks” I’m referring to aren’t literally fishes with sharp teeth, but they are man-eating (or at least budget-eating) predators.

What am I talking about? Well, if you’re a small business owner, particularly one seeking help with marketing, you’ve no doubt gotten their phone calls, spammy emails, or even met with these vicious creatures in person.

It’s simply the modern version of the snake-oil salesman, who in now sells you the dream of flooding your doors with more customers than you can shake a stick at.

What causes this? Well, done correctly, SEO can be a very powerful component of your customer acquisition strategy.  It can get you great results.  But there are a number of factors that attract these sharks and the bottom-feeders that accompany them.

SEO Factors that Attract the Sharks

1)    SEO is relatively new. It barely existed 10 years ago, let alone 15 or 20.

2)    SEO is complex and technical, and not always easily understood. This makes it ripe for some slick sales shark to swoop in, and baffle you with the technical jargon while your eyes are glazed over with the money to be made with the results he’s promising.

3)    SEO is not cheap. Pricing can range across the board, from hundreds of dollars to 5 figures or more per month.  Done right, it truly is a valuable investment that should provide a positive return many times over.

4)    SEO takes time to get results – usually. While there are ethical ways to get results quickly, in general it does take several months, often 3-6 months or even more, depending on competition, to start seeing real, measurable results.

When you put all these factors together, it’s no wonder the sharks are attracted.

How they’ll usually operate is they’ll share a slick presentation, quote a bunch of statistics and sell you the dream that by the time you’re 3-6 months into their contract, you’ll be seeing some amazing results and will have all the customers you can desire.

Now that’s not the bad part – good companies often have slick presentations, too, and statistics do help back up the talk.  And setting goals of achieving great results is certainly normal for good companies, too.

The problem is that during this time, the shark’s companies do absolutely no work, not even lifting a finger to help your business, while they collect checks or charge your credit card each month until you finally realize you’re not seeing the results you expected and decide to cancel your contract.

But you’re still out of pocket all that money.

Meanwhile they’ve moved on to other innocent victims, repeating the feeding frenzy.

So how can you stay safe and not have your marketing and SEO budget eaten alive by these predators?

Since I can’t stop all these ripoff artists from calling you, emailing you, or trying to seduce you with their smooth sales pitches, what can I do?  Well, I can help educate you on what they’re doing and what to look out for.

So subscribe in the box at the upper right of this page and I’ll send you a free report on How Not to Get Ripped Off by an SEO Firm.

Whether you do business with me or not, I don’t want you to throw your money away and I certainly don’t want any of those scammers to take your money.  Hire a good marketing firm.  One that plays by the rules (ethically and morally) and does the right things the right way.   One that helps you get more business.   After all, that’s what it’s all about.

Atlanta Video SEO mini case study

At W3 Group Marketing, we do a lot of experimentation on what it really takes to rank high on the search engines and to get more customers.  Of course we’re learning from Google, Yahoo! Bing and others, plus lots of other SEO “gurus” but we don’t stop there – we come up with new ideas, tactics and strategies and put them to the test.  Here’s a video SEO example for a company in Atlanta:

Video SEO Overview

We know that the search engines LOVE video.  In fact, YouTube is now the second-most popular “search engine” out there behind Google.  Since Google owns YouTube, one could argue otherwise, but the point is that people use YouTube as a search engine.  Whatever you want to do, search YouTube for “How to” and whatever it is you want to do, and there’s probably a video on it.

Back to the point: We also know that Google indexes YouTube quickly, partly because they own it, partly because they just plain love video.  Oh, we covered that second part already, didn’t we?  No worries, they love it so much that it’s worth repeating.  Which leads us to a video SEO experiment – actually more of a demo, since we’ve done this before quite a few times.

Atlanta Video SEO Experiment

One company wasn’t showing up at all for a key phrase that their prospective customers would frequently search for – but their competitors were all over page one, two, and more.  They were somewhere deep on page 4 or 5 for this key phrase.  So we looked into it and found that there were video results on page one of Google. Voila!  Here’s an opening we can master.  So we spent about 15 minutes putting together a simple PowerPoint presentation with their logo, contact info and key services (this company is a service provider, but the approach can work equally well for products).

Then we converted this into a video slideshow using some snazzy but simple video creation software that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out.

Next, we optimized the various properties of the video that we could change, then uploaded it to YouTube.  We then optimized every other element we could of this video for our target keywords.  Then we hit “save changes” and went on about our business working on some other cool stuff to attract customers for our clients.  (Did you like that subtle self-endorsement?  Sure, you can use it.  Go ahead.)

Video SEO Results

A few hours later, six to be exact, we searched Google for our key phrase.  And guess what?  Our shiny, brand-spanking-new video was on PAGE ONE on Google for that phrase. Then I checked again a week or so later, and it’s slightly higher on Page One than it was before.  And this is for a very competitive phrase – over 210,000,000 results and Google AdSense going several pages deep into the results.  Not bad!  Further proof that video SEO works, and I’m willing to bet that most of your competitors either aren’t doing video SEO, or they’re not doing it right.

Contact us today if you’d like to see how we can help you.

You’ve probably seen press releases issued for all sorts of newsworthy events – a new CEO, major new account, research studies published, company mergers, IPOs, and more.  And you’re no doubt well aware that these are released with the intention of getting the person or company (or companies) exposure in the news.   But did you know there’s an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value to press releases?

If your answer to this question was “yes,” you get a gold star.  And if you’re already doing online press releases for SEO purposes, upgrade that star to platinum.  But we’re guessing that even if you’re doing this as an ongoing part of your marketing strategy, you could be doing it better.  Here’s an example of one thing we did for a recent client:

Atlanta Automotive SEO Press Release

This client is a car dealership specializing in high-end, luxury and sports cars.  They sell lots of BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and others along with more exotic cars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Maybach and more.

What we did with 2 SEO-maxed press releases

Technically, an event doesn’t have to be worthy of being a major story on CNN to be worthy of a press release.  In this case, the car dealership had acquired a couple of beauties, along with quite a few others.  So as an experiment, we wrote 2 very highly optimized press releases to get the SEO value from them.

We chose 2 cars that we knew were pretty competitive – Mercedes-Benz and BMW.  We figured out our target keywords and used them appropriately (not too much, not too little – balance is important in everything) and then we submitted each of these 2 SEO-friendly press releases to 2 online press release distribution sites.  We’d tell you which ones, but we’d have to kill you (just kidding, but we’re still not going to tell you).

Once all of this was done, we went on to other tasks, then retired for the night and checked back the next day.

SEO Press Release Results for Car Dealership

What did we find? Well, 20 hours later, that’s not even a full day, we had at least 30 new PAGE ONE results, for over 25 keywords that we weren’t even on page one before this happened.  And these were pretty competitive keywords, though some were more “long-tail” than others.

The Press Release SEO takeaway

The great thing about press releases and SEO is that you can get results VERY fast, even for very competitive keywords.  The drawback is that press releases are inherently news, and old news isn’t news anymore, so the results don’t have much “staying power” from an SEO standpoint.  However, the links are still there, so it does have some residual value.  Besides, this method can help you get some fast results while your other SEO efforts are kicking in.   The bottom line: it’s well worth doing, and doing regularly.  Just keep coming up with new reasons to send out press releases. Your SEO efforts will be rewarded.

Here’s a simple marketing tip for small businesses (or bigger businesses, too) if you use a cash register.

Make your cash register make your cash register ring more.

What?

No, that’s not a typo.  Your cash register can help you make more sales.

How?

Well, it’s pretty simple.  Most modern cash registers allow you to customize what appears on the receipt.  If your cash register looks like the one in the picture below, sorry, you’re probably not going to benefit much from this tip.  Otherwise, read on:

Most businesses, probably over 90% of them, just have the basic information on their receipts, if they’ve even customized the receipts at all.

That means:

Company name, address, and phone number.  Some will add their company’s website URL to the receipt, but most don’t even do this.

But what if you took one extra step that resulted in even 1% of your customers coming back one more time per month?  How much would your annual sales increase?

It’s simple.  Add a sentence to your cash register receipt that says “Join our FREE Discount Newsletter” or something like that.  Then have an email or a website page where they can sign up.  Then once they subscribe, send them special offers for the next time they shop.  Coupons, closeout deals, clearance, regular sales, whatever.

I’m typing this at a Starbucks location, and as effective as they are at marketing, THEY aren’t even doing this.  No facebook fan page, no twitter handle, not even a website URL on their receipt.

Of course not every customer is going to even pay attention to the receipt, let alone sign up, but some percentage will.

First, you’ll need an email autoresponder. I recommend (and use) AWeber, but there are lots of others out there – Constant Contact, MailChimp, and so on.

For the many of you that don’t know what an autoresponder is, it is an email subscription management program that allows you to email lots of people at once, and allows them to subscribe to your email list, newsletter, etc.  We’ll cover more on that in a later blog post.

Then decide on how often you’re going to send out emails to your list. Add a task to your calendar to set up an email to go out regularly.  Weekly is good for a retail store – maybe more often for really special deals or events. But weekly is a good start.  Most shoppers are used to seeing weekly deals in the newspaper, online, and so on.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to go out. So try it out – test it, and see if it makes a difference in your business.  You already know that there are 2 ways to increase your sales per customer: have them buy more per visit, and have them buy more often.  This can help you encourage them to buy  more often.  I hope it helps!

We’ll cover more email marketing tips and small business marketing ideas in later posts to this blog, so be sure to subscribe, add it to your favorites, and share it with other business owners who could benefit from getting more customers and getting customers to buy more often.

And if you need help setting up your email marketing campaign, W3 Group can help.  Just contact us at 404-669-6682 or email info at AtlantaSEOs.com.

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(FTC Disclaimer: some links in this blog are affiliate links and may result in a referral or commission paid to W3 group if you purchase a product.  It doesn’t increase your price any.)

If your business is geared towards getting local business, such as a retail store, restaurant, auto service center, car dealership, etc., one of the first things you’ll want to do once your website is up and running is to get it listed in all of the various local directories that you can.

If you’ve searched for anything on Google lately, you’ve probably noticed that local businesses are featured more prominently than ever before, and those local results are for the Google Places profiles for the businesses that have utilized Local SEO tactics to optimize their profiles.

This serves two purposes: One, each listing is another link to your site, which means that local directory listings help your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Two, getting listed in these local directories helps you get found by your target customers, many of whom are searching on these local directories specifically to find local businesses that provide what they want to buy.

If you’re a family in Kalamazoo, and have a leaky pipe that’s flooding your basement, you want a plumber close to you, not one in Flagstaff. In the old days, people would start with the Yellow Pages to find local businesses. Nowadays, over 80% of people search online first, which makes the Yellow Pages almost obsolete. Though there are many online “Yellow Pages” sites, let me ask you – where do you look first? Yellowpages.com or Google?

When was the last time you saw TWO volumes for the Yellow Pages?

The odds are that you probably use Google or some other search engine first.  In fact, most people don’t even know where their Yellow Page book is, if they haven’t thrown it away or taken it to the recycling center. The last one I saw was being used to elevate a computer monitor. At least that one was getting used for something!

Here’s an example of a search for “Chiropractic Clinic”

Actual Google Page One results for one W3 Group Atlanta SEO Client

As you can see, the local listings dominate the page for this (and many other) search terms.  If your company’s local profile shows up, this can bring in a tremendous amount of visitors to your website, depending of course on how man times people search for the keywords in your profiles.  One W3 Group Client gets over 2,000 visitors per month through their Google Places profile – and it’s FREE to do!

So where do you start? First, go to Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Kudzu.com, and Bing Local. Build profiles for your business on each of those directories. Unlike universal search, unique content is not required to rank highly for local search – in fact, for local search, duplicate content (such as your business description) helps the search engines know that your listings do, in fact, refer to the same business and therefore helps your ranking on local search.

Then you’ll want to find additional directories that you may have missed – one way to do this is to search for (Your Town) + “local directory.” Also check for local business associations where you can build your profile on their site as well. Be sure to include links to your website and blog on each of these.

Another tip: include not only your own ZIP code, but all the ZIP codes where you can provide your services. This helps you get found when people in nearby areas are searching for your business. These ZIP codes should also be listed somewhere on your site, perhaps in the meta tags. Do the same thing for neighboring cities, towns, counties, and metropolitan areas.  Some people do search for a service or product plus the ZIP code, so you want to be sure you show up there, too.  

Also make sure you list additional keywords in your listing that are appropriate for your products or services. You don’t want to go overboard by listing every single potential keyword, but make sure that you have the keywords you want most (link this to another article) in your descriptions.  BUT HERE’S THE CATCH: You have to do this in the right way, otherwise you risk getting your profile removed, your account suspended, or even revoked.  

Naturally, there’s a lot more to it than this, including optimizing your profile listings, and setting things up in the right way so your listings DO get approved.

For a free consultation on how W3 Group can help your business, contact us today!