Creating Relevant Content

Too many business owners believe that more copy on their website is better than just a little. A few years ago that may have been the case. Today, in this age of instant gratification, it is far more critical that the content – the copy and images – on your website is relevant. Relevant to your business and relevant to your potential consumers, the web users searching for your content.

Key Words. Let’s assume a potential customer is online because they had a party and their carpet needs to be professionally cleaned. What are they likely to key into the search engine, whether it’s Google, YouTube, Yahoo, or Bing? Probably the key words “carpet cleaning” or “professional carpet cleaning” and possibly their city, but the search engines are intuitive enough to automatically search for those services in the general vicinity of that computer’s location.

Relevant content on your website needs to include “carpet cleaning” in a title page, and “professional carpet cleaning” in the hidden page description as well as among the key words coded into the html language. The actual page seen by the potential consumer also has to have relevant content about the fact you provide carpet cleaning services and that you provide professional carpet cleaning services.

Keep in mind that users are unlikely to spend a lot of time on your site looking for the information. Some recent research suggested that time is in the nano-seconds. The more prominent and easy it is for users to access, and the more relevant it is to their search criteria, the greater likelihood you will get the call to provide the services.

Call to Action. This is content that is often overlooked. Do you want a visitor to your web site to do something once they find you? Do you want them to call? Send you an E-mail? Click for more information? Stop in at your store?

What you want them to do is the call to action that should be a relevant portion of your website’s content. If you are a hair stylist or massage therapist, you probably want your online viewers to call for an appointment, so make that a headline on your site: Call (123) 456-7890 for an appointment today!

Users may ignore the call to action. The point is to make it was easy as possible for potential customers to choose you.

Format. How the content is presented on your website is also relevant to increasing and driving traffic. It’s less about numbers of visitors than it is about visitors who become customers because of what they’ve found and how long they look at the information you provide to them. Think about the last time you went to a website and found a massive block of copy for its content. Did you read it all? Or were you gone in seven seconds? How you format your content can be critical to the success of your web presence. Make it easy to find information that is relevant to their search.

Users love bullet points and numbered lists, such as the top 10 reasons to use your services (maybe it’s the top 7). Headlines, clickable graphics, pictures, and other eye appealing elements – as long as they’re relevant to your business – can increase the amount of time visitors spend exploring your site, learning about you and your business, and considering using your services.

Create room on your site for a Facebook reader so the content changes every time you post to Facebook, or make a video that links to YouTube from your site. The more activity that gets noticed on your site by the spiders, the higher your search engine ranking will be. Keep in mind that the search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated, so you and your web developer need to stay on top of the factors that can elevate your site in the rankings, or demote you.

Theme. Along with formatting, having a consistent theme between all the pages on your website adds to the relevancy of your content. Adding copy or graphics to fill space can create confusion to viewers. Often, less is more attractive, especially if it pertains to the message you’re trying to convey.

That brings up another point. Do you know what your message, or brand, is? Are you conveying it correctly in your web content? It should be part of the overall look and feel, or theme, for your business and its website.

Spelling & Grammar. How your business appears to the online consumer is critical. Misspelled words, such as spelling a key word hidden in code as “capret cleaning” instead of “carpet cleaning” can mean the difference between your site being found in the search engines. Extra care must be taken to avoid spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Abbreviations may be fine for txting, but are inappropriate for reflecting the image you wish to portray of your company.

Your potential consumers want reliable, trustworthy information for them to feel comfortable using your company and its products or services. Be careful in using spell checkers, too, since it is difficult for them to discern where “their,” “they’re,” or “there” is the appropriate terminology.

Last thought, if you’re unsure about how relevant your web content is, consider using the services of a professional. If they can help you move from page five of the search engine responses to page one, it will be worth the investment.

Sex Sells – Part One

Yes, it’s true! Sexual attraction can sell your products or services.

Think about it for a few minutes (a few seconds for men) and you realize the attraction factor is more than male-female and female-male. What do I mean?

I have often thought that department store ads for underwear were unfair to women. The ads depict female models wearing the products in full color, which one might think were designed to appeal to the male audience. You rarely see male models sporting the masculine products; it’s usually a picture of the product in its package. That probably makes it easier for the guys to find it in the store.

The female models, I have learned, are what attract other women to the product. The ads are not oriented toward men! Women want to see what the product looks like, and the kind of body they would like to or do have. So, in the case of women’s under garment advertising, the “sex” factor is female-female.

Companies that market sporting goods or sports-related products also find success with the “sex sells” approach. Humor works well, too, such as some of the beer commercials where horses work out to improve their position or play football for example. Yet beer marketing companies also use male bonding approaches to selling their products since research has shown that men are the most likely high quantity buyers of their products.

We have become so familiar with the “sex sells” approach of print, TV, radio, and even Internet advertising that we rarely give it a second thought. For it to be effective for your business, therefore, it must be different, tasteful, and outstanding to get your product or service noticed.

How do you do that?

First, know your customers. Understand who makes the buying decision when it comes to purchasing your products or services.

Second, know your products or services. What are your customers or prospective customers buying? Are they buying wicker baskets, or are they purchasing decorative storage containers?

Third, decide if a sexy advertising approach is appropriate for your business, products, and services. There may be a more effective way to get the results you desire.

Fourth, if sexual attraction will move your merchandise, find creative and tasteful ways to advertise your goods and services. You may find that a subliminal, nuanced message has far greater impact on results than a raunchy, over-the-top and objectionable reference to bedroom behavior.

Allow me to share a couple of examples:

1) Think about the operation of a bar, tavern, or restaurant that serves alcohol. Think about the patrons. They could easily purchase alcohol and drink it at home. Why do they come to the drinking establishment? They come to be with friends, to enjoy the atmosphere, have fun, and to be entertained.

Ignoring the age of the patrons, they are more likely to drink more product if the bartender or server is younger, more attractive, and more out-going. Yes, even flirty! A female bartender with a great personality and an attractive figure will build a loyal, repeat male customer base more than a grumpy older woman. The same holds true for a muscular, handsome male bartender in building a repeat loyalty among female patrons.

2) Think about trade shows and exhibits for a minute. As you walk the floors of a convention center to check out the various products and services offered by vendors in your industry, what draws you into the exhibit? One, obviously, is that you are interested in learning more about the product or service being displayed. How do you react if there’s a “pushy” sales rep approaching you to “step in” or “take this brochure” as you get close? You either get sucked in or side-step to the other side of the aisle to avoid them.

Now think about the booth where there’s an attractive male or female staffing the display. They’re smiling at you (and everyone) and being a bit flirtatious as you approach. The display is also attractive, but the way the staffer is dressed and groomed reels you in. If they answer your serious questions professionally and appeal to your attraction to them, you are more likely to also be attracted to their products and services.

The point is to take the time to think things through when it involves using a sexual approach to marketing your business.

Stay Focused

In this age of ever-changing technology, it is more easy than ever for a business owner to lose focus. Yet it is even more important that you stay focused on your business to avoid being side-tracked.

The new insurance mandates from the federal government are a good example. Most business owners know that changes are coming, but have little comprehension of what those changes mean to them. There will be workshops and seminars and E-mails about the changes, including the implications once a more clear picture is developed. Either way, this mandated change will require time away from your business and your customers.

So how do you stay focused?

If there is someone on your team you can dedicate to learning the ropes about the insurance laws, get them on it now so they have time to gather the information and assimilate it. Their challenge is to ascertain how it will impact your business and employees, if at all.

Another option is to rely on professionals you trust who are up on the changes, such as your CPA, legal counsel, tax preparer, financial planner, or insurance agent.

The 3rd option is to spend the time to understand it yourself. Certainly the first two are better choices.

Another distraction facing business owners are employee issues. It would be a perfect world if every employee showed up on time, knew what they were supposed to do, exceeded those expectations, and spoke highly of the company all the time. If it were a perfect world.

So how do you stay focused?

It is improbable to think that employee issues won’t arise in your company, so the key is to be prepared for every eventuality. Have a professional such as legal counsel prepare an employee handbook that stipulates employment conditions, expectations, and consequences. Relegate that responsibility to your human resources department if you have one, and make sure they take time to keep you apprised of their actions. You’re the one with ultimate legal responsibility – along with your Board of Directors and others with liability.

What is critically important when it comes to these types of issues as well is how clearly you convey the company’s mission to employees and share your vision with them. The more closely they are aligned with your line of thinking, the more productive they are likely to be.

Your business plan and market strategies are also methods that enable you to remain focused on your objectives.

Cats, for example, are hunters. When they have identified potential prey, they are focused on getting that prey over everything else. They will stalk, crawl, sneak, pounce, or chase that object of desire until it’s caught. They are focused. When the prey is caught or becomes unattainable, the cats move on to other tasks.

Your business and marketing strategies identify your target consumers, what you will deliver to them, how and why. Your company should be focused on accomplishing that objective. If you lose sight or interest in that goal, it’s easy to move on to other tasks and later wonder why the business failed … or you went hungry in cat language.

Professional consultants are there to help you stay focused.

Why Are You In Business?

As business owners, one of the tasks we often overlook is to stop and think about why we’re in business. Sure, we know we have to market, sell, produce, and deliver our product. That’s a given. Why we do what we do gets short shrift in the process. That can have an impact on the entire operation of our enterprise.

Perhaps the most critical element in our business is the reason we are in business to begin with. Some of us started our venture in the hopes our children would have an interest and want to take over some day. Some got lucky and found a niche that hadn’t been filled yet and are now the cat’s meow in that industry. Quite a few Baby Boomers want to enjoy their retirement doing something they’ve always wanted to do. Why did you get into the business you’re in?

Here’s why the answer to that question is so important, and worth revisiting every six months or so: The reason you are in business becomes your mission, and your mission is conveyed to your employees, customers, and the public as the vision and public persona (if you will) of your company.

That vision becomes the engine that drives your business. As you will find in the Small Business Owner’s Guide to Marketing, your mission defines the products and services you offer and to whom you offer them. It clarifies your position in the market and identifies strategies for marketing what you do to the consuming public. And, as you look at it in terms of your life’s contributions, it also outlines an exit strategy for eventually getting out of the business to enjoy retirement.

You may think retirement would drive you crazy, but your spouse may want you to reconsider that option. That’s another reason to think about why you’re in business today.

Take the time to think things through.

Will Your Great Idea Fly?

If you have a fabulous idea for a new business or an expanded product line for your existing venture, take some time to think things through before you invest a lot of time, money, and emotion in moving forward. Why? Research has shown that roughly one out of every 50 business ideas is commercially viable.

How can you find out if your idea will generate revenue, be accepted by the consumer, and be profitable?

The best method is a feasibility study.

Although there are many types of feasibility studies, and some you can be do by yourself, it is best to employ a professional consultant to assist you. The person conducting your feasibility study should be an independent, third party consultant without a vested interest in your project or concept. That enables them to retain impartiality and look at your idea from two main perspectives: 1) Will the product or service be accepted by the consumer, and to what extent?; and, 2) Will the product or service be profitable and generate a positive return on your investment, and when?

Having someone doing the business and market research independently removes the emotional aspect of your project or idea. You have come up with the concept, sketched out ideas, thought about names, and become emotionally attached to the idea. This is good, but should be reserved for after you’ve determined whether the concept is commercially viable.

What does a feasibility study consist of?

1) A major aspect of your feasibility study is determining if there is a viable market for your product or service. You need to know more than who is likely to purchase the product. You need to understand where those consumers are in terms of their buying power, repeating purchases, personal preferences, and the media that will influence their buying decisions in a positive fashion, among other information.

2) A second major aspect of a feasibility study is the financial viability of your idea. What will be the costs associated with producing the product or delivering the service, including manufacturing, staffing, packaging, selling, administration, and marketing, among others? What will the market bear in terms of pricing? At what point, if any, will the business break even and start generating profits.

The key to the financial perspective is being realistic in determining the projections. Similar to thinking “everyone” needs your product or service is the thought that you can sell 20,000 widgets for $25 apiece when the industry has been successful selling them at $15 each. You may stick with that projection, but will have to justify the $10 per unit difference to someone, including the consumer.

3) Other aspects of your feasibility study look at the overall economic conditions, how many jobs will be created or needed, the management structure of your venture and whether you have the experience required to manage the operation.

In short, a feasibility does cost you some money but in the long run it can save you money, time, and the heartache of failure. It becomes a matter of knowing how much you are willing to invest to determine if your idea is commercially viable.

Consider this: Would you rather spend $10,000 and two months to learn the idea isn’t commercially viable, or invest $200,000 and two years of sweat equity to discover the same outcome?

The role of the consultant in the process is to present every aspect of your idea in a fair, impartial and unbiased report so that you can make an intelligent decision. Whether you elect to move forward with your concept or send it to the trash bin is solely your decision.

That decision is best made from a business perspective, leaving emotions aside. Once you have made a decision to move forward, emotions must come back strong as you will need to invest your heart and soul in your exciting new venture.

Ask Brand Irons about their experience conducting feasibility studies.

Are You Riding On The Right Trail?

Image of a typical cattle drive from Harper’s Weekly magazine, circa 1867

Is your business heading in the right direction?

Think about that for a few minutes. If you have a clear objective for where you want your business to be in 5 or 10 years, you can be relatively secure in knowing that your company is headed down the right path. Granted, economic conditions may change in three years. Government intervention may lessen in six. Market conditions could change tomorrow. The goal is to know which trail you want to ride, stay as close as possible to that route, and be ready for obstacles along the way.

The trail boss hired by ranchers in the late 19th century knew which trail he needed to use in driving the cattle to the markets in Kansas or Colorado. Depending on the season, he anticipated weather conditions such as the rains the cowboys might encounter. There were strategies in place to keep the herd healthy along the way. Heavy rains might force them to hold tight for a few extra days to let the swollen rivers subside before trying to cross. Dry weather might cause them to slow the pace but keep moving until they could find water and grazing grasses.

Your business should be prepared for the conditions it will encounter along the trail, too. A warmer than normal winter might reduce your snow blower sales, so reducing your inventory is a potential strategy to keep your expenses down. Is your sales force moving products with the highest margins? Have you analyzed whether the market has changed for that product, or the service that generates the highest profits?

Allow me to share a classic example from the optical industry that I am confident is repeated in other industries: A super sales person is at the top of her game and generating substantial commissions from the volume of sales she brings to the company. The boss (or sales manager) looks at how much this sales person is getting in commissions and believes that she’s earning way too much. She gets called in to the office and is told her territory is being reduced and/or her percentages are going to be cut back because she’s “costing the company” too much money.

Stop and think about this all-too-common scenario.

A sales representative sells your products. That creates orders which generate revenue – and profits – from the sale. The representative earns a commission for bringing business in the door. You want more sales, but at less cost to the bottom line or, as the reality points out, at the expense of the person responsible for manufacturing those sales. Ever wonder why so many sales people leave a company they appear to have been doing well for? Ask them if their percentages or territories were cut back. I’ll wager the answer will be “Yes.”

If you’ve really thought about it, the opposite scenario should be the rule. Expand your top sales representative’s territories. Give them a better percentage to generate more business … unless you don’t want more business!

The company who lost that stellar sales representative is now, two years later, wondering why their sales are down and why their competition is doing so well. Guess where she went to work as an in-demand sales representative?

Your business needs to be clear-headed and focused in its direction.

Brand Irons is one of those companies that can help you determine if you’re on the right trail. If you have a business plan, take a look at it and see if it still makes sense to be going in that direction or if a new path is worth investigating and developing. If you need a strategy for your business, it’s to your advantage to bring in an independent, third party perspective to ensure it’s appropriate for the market and to advise on which trail may be the most lucrative and profitable over the long haul.

Imagine how the buyer might react if a trail boss brought in a herd of camels to be sold at the cattle market. All that effort for naught.

Developing A Game Plan

The professional football season has arrived! As the harbinger of autumn, students returning to school, and fall sports, football season also reminds me that business owners need to have a plan for their success.

When you see a coach on the sidelines with his play chart, it’s easy to think of that as a cheat sheet. In reality, it’s the result of hours of preparation and planning. The head coach and his assistants have assessed the talent of their players and considered their options for every possible scenario in a game situation. They know that if the offense faces 2nd down and 15 yards from their own 35 yard line, they can bring in four wide receivers and execute a 20-yard sideline pass to get the first down. If they fail to execute and it’s 3rd and 15, there’s another play – perhaps the same one – that is in the plan.

You need game plans for your business and your football team.

Yet it all comes down to the basics – the line needs to block. The quarterback needs a few seconds of time to spot and hit a receiver who’s going to be open.

Your business, to ensure growth and a positive bottom line, also needs a game plan. Sure, you can jot down some thoughts on a cocktail napkin, but planning for success is a team effort. Your front line employees must know their assignments, especially as they pertain to taking care of the consumers (opening the holes to make the sale). Your production team must be prepared to meet the demand and generate results. Your marketing crew needs to position your efforts to satisfy customers while putting profits on the bottom line (touchdowns – points scored).

Success in business, as in football, is a team effort. A big difference in business is that your opponent seldom changes, whereas in football you face a different team each week. It’s all in the preparation.

A parting thought: Remember that part of your business plan should include how you deal with adversity, negative press, or economic downturns. You may say you will let the chips fall where they may, but it makes more sense to know which ones you can pick up and which ones should be chalked up to a learning experience.

As an independent, third party consultant, bringing in a consultant such as Brand Irons can provide you with an emotion-free perspective that puts teeth in your business plan. it also gives you a consumer’s point-of-view about the perceptions of your business that can prove beneficial in dealing with adversities.

Website Reflects Your Brand

You have many places to display your brand, which some people refer to as a logo but is far more complex than your corporate emblem. Your website is one of the most critical locations to market your brand, in addition to displaying your logo.

I had a client ask me a few months ago if it made sense for his company to have a website any more. He was probably thinking that with all the attention social media is garnering, that a website was a waste. I insisted a website is still vital for marketing one’s business; it’s just that the technology behind websites and how the spiders search for content is constantly evolving. In other words, websites still and will always need to be updated to accommodate technology and the content modified to reflect the changes the business … and consumers … go through on a regular basis.

Another client was frustrated because a friend of her daughter told her he could build the business website. Sound familiar? After months of sitting on the domain name, the daughter’s friend had yet to activate the website. There was always an excuse, but the one excuse the friend found hard to swallow was that he lacked the expertise to get the project done at the professional lelve the business needed. We got involved by generating the content and working with a developer to get the site done.

The client has realized that marketing her business is a bit more complicated than the first blush, and that emotional connections can make business decisions difficult. It was hard for her to “fire” the friend of her daughter because of the emotional impact, and from the cost she had to incur to fix the problem.

It is a decision that must be made, however. Emotions aside, your website is one of the main tools for marketing your business. If you lack the skills or the staff to generate the content that will tell your story and present your business in the most advantageous light with the highest likelihood of generating top returns from the search engines, you need to find and contract with professionals who can get it done.

You can actually save money with professional assistance. Here’s how, and how you can tell if you are working with a pro: A professional meets with you to gather the information needed to generate your website’s content. During that meeting, they should also give you a fairly accurate estimate of how much time is required to craft your copy.

You save money working with your web development company when you can deliver content, images, logos, and color schemes in one fell swoop. If you are building your first corporate website, start with a basic site, but think through what elements you envision being there when it is what you want it to be, or if money were a non-factor. If you are tweaking an existing site, and bringing in a new developer, your old developer needs to give the new team access to your files.

While it may seem too complicated, remember the importance of your corporate image, and how it’s reflected in your web presence. Old images and expired dates, including the copyright, can be damaging to those visiting your site for the first impression.

Here’s an example of how a good team can save you headaches and time. We started working with a web developer who had constructed a website for a cookie company. The design was done and the content was in Latin because the developer was waiting for the business owner to provide copy. Getting involved, as we’ve often found, the owner lacked the time to generate the content because they were focused on running their business. That’s more common than you might think, and business owners often struggle because they lack marketing skills, especially when it comes to the Internet, in most cases. They simply don’t have time to devote to that aspect of their business.

The developer hired Brand Irons to generate the content. We met with the business owner on Monday and E-mailed the website’s content back to them on Tuesday. We followed up on Wednesday and heard the owner ask if the developer could just post something about the site being “under construction” instead of content in Latin. We advised them that all they needed to do was make any changes and approve the content and the site could be updated with new content within a couple of hours.

They did, and it was updated later that day. Visitors are much happier now, and we even translated the landing page copy to Czech, Danish, and German.

So, yes, you do need a professional looking website for your business. You can engage Brand Irons to design it in such a fashion that reflects your brand the way it should.

Branding Your Leadership Position

To establish your brand, start with the reason your business exists. Think about your mission and why you do what you do. The #1 immutable law of marketing is the law of leadership. That means being the leader in your industry or community or wherever you can exert influence as a leader, and thus own the brand.

If, for example, your business is a funeral home and there are two other funeral parlors in your community, how can you be the leader when it comes to funeral homes? What can you do to brand your services?

First, think about how you want to be known as a funderal home in the community. Study your competitors and figure out how you’re different. Then do some more research and think about how you want to be known. Analyze your options to own a specific niche and carve it out with a solid marketing strategy.

Options might be to position your furneral home, or brand, as the most economical of the three in your community. The opposite position would be to be the most expensive. How would your brand justify the cost and provide the value for the price if that’s the option you choose?

Is the brand the way you take care of customers? The extra value you provide, such as providing white gloves to pall bearers? Perhaps it’s the uniforms your employees wear? Is it how you greet guests coming to view the deceased? Or is it the follow-up you do after the services iwth the family? Perhaps it’s the relationships you have with area churches.

This used funeral homes as an example. Your business, wherever you’re located or whatever stage of business you’re in, can take advantage of the niche you possess. Whether you believe it or not, you have a niche you can use to build your brand. The possibilities are there, but there are also times when you need an independent, third party perspective to help you see the potential.

Trail Riding

A few years ago, when I was searching domain names, I discovered brandirons.com was available. A month or so ago, I finally decided to do something with it.

To tell a brief story, mega-cattle ranchers needed new markets for their beef after the U.S. Civil War. With the war over, the demand to supply troops dropped off so the ranchers hired a trail boss to move his large herds to markets in Kansas and Colorado. The markets were along the railroad lines connecting east and west.

The trail boss hired drovers to supply the drive with fresh horses, cowboys (because many really were boys) to drive the cattle, and a cook with chuckwagon to feed the crew. After branding the cattle with the rancher’s mark, they began what could be a six-week trek northward from central Texas, through Oklahoma (Indian Territory), and into the markets at a pace of roughly 10 miles per day.

Fast forward to today. Business owners need to get their products to market, sell them, and make some profit. Hiring a trail boss to handle that process still makes sense so the business owner or entrepreneur can concentrate on running their business.

Hence the concept of Brand Irons is to Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand.

The need for drovers and fresh horses may be gone, but the need for sales to move products and keep the company alive is a requirement.

The need for cowboys to take care of the animals has been replaced by every employee serving your customers.

So, what is your brand?