Refining the sales process with search marketing.

Marketing supplies leads. Sales converts those leads. This is the difference between marketing and sales. Internet marketing, specifically search marketing, can provide very well qualified leads but it takes quite a bit of care and planning to use the information gleaned to improve a business’ approach to sales.

What does it mean if search marketing brings in a significant increase in leads but sales sees little or no increase in client interactions, be they inquiries or sales?

Keyword problems?  If the keyword that is most used by searchers reaching your website isn’t increasing actual interactions there are a number of possibilities that need to be sorted out. The keyword may mean something different than what it means to your business.  Some people use the phrase “wedding band” for music and other use it for rings.

Branding problems? Does your brand name suggest something other than what your business actually does? The word “imports” could mean anything from automobiles to zebra print blankets. If your brand name suggests some other product in any way you need to make perfectly clear what your point of distinction is.

Copy problems? Your website needs to clearly state your benefit to a potential customer. They need to be told quickly and clearly what is in it for them. It’s probably not significant to them whether or not you graduated magna cum laude from Harvard if you don’t make it clear that you will get their carpets really clean.

The process of sorting these issues out is something we do with every client but it takes a team effort because, we are marketers and don’t really have direct control over the sales process. We will get you leads and refine exactly how qualified those leads are.

For more information contact us!

Is Facebook better for marketing than email?

Let’s set aside the fact that a large part of the population has given up on email. Many if not most people in their 20’s pretty much stick to text and Facebook. Other people of all ages have become hyper-sensitive to the wide variety of emails that may or may not be “spam”. So the real question is about how to use the current state of affairs to create an effective online marketing presence for your business.

There is a fundamental problem with thinking that email marketing is “better” than social media marketing. They both have strengths and weaknesses.  These characteristics make them great partners but in no way are they alternatives for each other.

Email marketing:

  • Pluses:
    • Elicits an immediate response.
    • Easy to implement and maintain using resources like Constant Contact
  • Minuses
    • It’s great that the effect is so quick but it is completely over in a few days.
    • Anti-spam mentality is so sensitive that there will always be “Do not write” responses to any list
    • The effectiveness is completely reliant on the quality of the mailing list


Facebook (Social media) marketing:

  • Pluses
    • Will produce pretty much forever since everyone seeing your messages has opted in.
    • Is viral by nature so there is a built-in mechanism that increases the number of people seeing your messages
  • Minuses
    • Takes time to establish a number of followers
    • Requires good content generation on a timely basis
    • Requires giving a value to interest new followers


The two, when working together, can overcome the shortcomings of the other and give your business a coordinated online marketing approach.

Contact me to begin planning how to achieve this for your business.

How does your website look to a visitor using a mobile handset?

Mobile handsets are increasingly of the smartphone variety.  This enables Web access on the go.  The number of mobile visitors to websites has skyrocketed with the popularity of the iPhone and now Android from Google has surpassed the iPhone with an even better Web capability. What does this mean regarding the use of your website for marketing purposes?

I gave a presentation to an organization that asked me to assess their current website for Internet marketing purposes.  It had an all-Flash interface which inherently has search engine optimization problems. Search engines only have a limited ability to “see inside” a Flash animation which mostly looks like one big graphic to their spiders. Since the content is cloudy others sites with more optimized content will out-perform all-Flash sites easily. Flash also has ongoing security and performance problems which were detailed by Steve Jobs in his explanation of why Flash will not be allowed on iPhones. I showed the board of this organization how their site appeared on an iPhone. Visitors get a message that tells them to install Flash which is and always will be impossible on an iPhone. As the use of handsets for making searches increases it will become increasingly more important that business websites have an effective strategy for servicing mobile users.

 It’s never a good idea to make a visitor do something in order to view your content.  It’s more likely that they will go somewhere else and never come back.