Last week we talked about marketing and the art of attraction.
This week I wanted to bring in another view of marketing, from an expert, so I asked Mary Semmer with Chicago SEO Pros to share her opinion of how contractors can use marketing to grow their business.
Here is what Mary had to say:
Anyone who has been in business for more than a few years understands just how much the marketing landscape has changed for small businesses since the turn of the century.
It is true.
Advertising options that worked for contractors in 2000 are no longer effective or yield the return on investment (ROI) that they once did. Look at the size of the daily newspaper or your local city magazine or news journal and look at the number of pages today versus the time period from 1995 to 2007. The page counts are mere fractions of what they once were.
I experienced this first hand as an owner of a local magazine from 1995 through 2007. When we first launched our home and garden publication, we provided a much needed service to our readers and our advertisers who could connect with each other in a theme-relevant environment. Many of our advertisers cited our publication as the single most effective venue for reaching people who needed goods and services for their homes. It was a great place to be for all parties involved, that is, of course, until a company called Google entered the picture.
While it can be said that the Internet has destroyed the revenue models of legacy media such as magazines and newspapers, it can also be said that it has provided much needed accountability for advertisers. Internet results, including leads from company owned websites, search results and online advertising can be tracked, quantified and compared with other more or less effective sources of customers and new revenue. When you can pinpoint ROI down to the penny, and know that that ROI can be replicated and scaled over and over again, you have a recipe for business growth that never existed before. No wonder businesses of all sizes have embraced the Web as their primary source of marketing in just the last 10 years.
Since selling our magazine in 2007, I have spent countless hours studying how the Internet works and specifically, how to best utilize its unique capabilities to benefit contractors as they pursue excellence and sustainable growth in their businesses.
The first page of Google search results is where business now goes to get new customers. You probably have heard statistics such as Google has 65% of all the search traffic on the Web and 99.1% of searchers never go past the first page of search results to find a solution to their problem or an answer to their question. These stats are well-verified by multiple sources.
In addition to client sites, we have our own sites that we “rank” (i.e., earn a placement on the first page of Google search results) for tens of thousands of search terms people use every day. We use what we know to help our clients fill their sales funnels and for our own money-making sites as well (we practice what we preach).
We live, breathe, eat and sleep search engine optimization. We know that many people reading this article have been burned by SEO in the past. Promises not kept. Sites ruined or penalized. Valuable time and money lost. Know that you are not alone. It is an epidemic because the perpetrator usually just disappears – especially if they are from overseas – and reappears in another city and state to wreak havoc on someone else.
We believe that if you are educated about what is possible, what isn’t possible, what to expect, and the amount of time it takes to effect a change in your top line, then you will be better able to make Google’s free traffic work for you.
Here are some of the key things to consider:
- What is a keyword and why is it important
- How does Google decide who ranks in what spot on a search results page
- How to increase conversions from your website
- How to build a brand online
- What is the three pack and why you want to be there
- How to generate your own leads and avoid Home Advisor
- How to test new geographic markets for your services
- What are citations and why are they crucial to your local business
I look forward to sharing some more information another time. In the meawhile, if you have questions, please send me an email: [email protected]
About the author: Mary Semmer is a search engine optimization expert at Chicago SEO Pros , serial entrepreneur, former owner of Chicago Home & Garden magazine and a former commercial lending officer of a major money center commercial bank. She is a graduate of Kellogg School of Management and a lifelong resident of the Chicago area.
