Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…

Basics Of online marketing strategy for small business owners … .. continue reading ..

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Online marketing for bankruptcy lawyers has gotten more competitive than ever. With more bankruptcy lawyers turning to the Internet for their marketing efforts, it’s harder than ever to get to the top of the search engines.

The answer for many is content marketing, which involves creation or sharing of information for the purpose of engaging current and potential clients. When you deliverhigh-quality, .. continue reading ..

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I had a chat last night with a marketer who by all accounts is experienced, well respected and knowledgeable. He was kind enough to give of his time to have a chat with me at the request of my business partner and other possible partners.

I came out of that call feeling flat, feeling misunderstood and wondering if it had given any value to either myself or the experienced marketer. The purpose of the call was a little unclear for both sides, what also was unclear from my perspective was whether my message was being properly understood. That perhaps my enthusiasm for what i do was being misinterpreted for something else.

Until recently my business was in international recruitment, as many businesses that depends on a good economy i was not able to rely on that while people were losing jobs in their own countries. In fact, i truly believe it to be unethical to continue in that business when there are unemployed people with skills who could be retrained for less cost and with more certainty than bringing in foreign labor.

Fortunately for me i have used the opportunity to diversify and get away from a marketplace that i was often very unhappy in, and that i just could not bring myself to like at times. I got back into internet marketing with the hope of learning new skills, to create a new business model and to enter into the marketplace again, with a great service that would help my clients succeed, and and without the notion of mystery that i had been fed myself when i needed any online marketing or other web based service.

One of the things that i have been doing since i started to diversify, is to commit to learning new things each and every day, sometimes, especially at the outset i felt extreme overwhelm with information overload. Its an interesting feeling that  i can still feel with clarity now, and i can remember exactly what i felt then, but now i can describe it better. It was a tenseness, an impatience, and an overwhelming sense that i needed to get to the bottom of this, and understand all this stuff right now, and as fast as i can but coupled with the realization that its gonna take time, its gonna be a long road and its gonna be tough. Even worse it is gonne be uncertain.

I carried on regardless and with determination against the wishes of some, but with a clear vision that i would go from here to there, in a short period of time, knowing also that it will look very different when i get there because i will allow for flexibility to adapt into the marketplace, to adopt new strategies and skills, and learn new tactics, but also that i would learn from the very best in the marketplace for what i wanted to do.

All of that turned out to be true. I have a new service today that looks much different to the one i had envisaged and i am happier. I learned from some of the best in the industry through reading, watching videos and listening to audio every single day and i can say with certainty that i have been learning something new every single day.

When i look back now what i see is an evolution, i can see a logical sequence  of where i was attracted at first, what i learned and in the order that i learned it. I can even see a logical sequence of who i learned from and at what times, at what points and even when i started to take a new step, a further move down the path of evolution and eventually to where i am now.

What i am clear about is this.

In order to fully understand anyone i am dealing with in business i need to always do one thing from the outset…Ask a single question. When i need to know what they are there talking to me for..is it to help me, to offer advice, to joint venture to rip apart my strategies or to dismiss me. I must ask them to quantify what they are there for, and what ever answer they give me i need to say the words…what does that mean to you in relation to what we are doing here now…what does that look like to you, please explain to me what that means to you.

So often common phrases get used, copied, reused again and they can often mean different things to you and to me. It then causes assumptions to be made that can be way off target and then leads to misunderstandings to the point there can be two people talking at each other and with two very different conversations going on.

Yesterday, i tried to avoid this and still i was told that the market is competitive, that if i want to be in SEO, then i should learn from the guys that are in the top 3 places on Google when you type SEO, and that my prices were wrong for someone wanting to get into a niche.

I tell you what, all very valid points if i was doing what he thinks i was doing. However, none of those assumptions were accurate.

The market of online marketing  is highly competitive, therefore we are aiming at a niche, but even that can be competitive, so we can drill down deeper and get into multiple micro niches.

My prices might be wrong if my niche is in a market with little money or the opposite with huge amounts of money, however, if i was asked, i could have pointed out that my niche has 180 identified targets, in which i am aware that i have several contacts scattered among some of those 180 targets and that the least annual revenue of those 180 identified targets is making over $100 million per year do you think that perhaps that might be a game changer to that perception?

More importantly prices do not exist beyond being a guide until you know what your clients needs are and what your client wants. Only then can you set prices and that will depend on a two way discussion on return on investment objectives.

And it might well be correct and wise if i wanted to be an SEO Expert to learn from the guys occupying the top 3 SEO places on Google. ..But i dont want to be an SEO expert, i never did, i never said i did and thats not what we do. The truth is that these days to dominate a niche on Google you do not need to be an SEO expert. There are several key SEO basics that you should adopt and these do not require you to be an SEO expert to know and do them effectively. These are more than enough to dominate most local search market niches, which is what we do.

Our services start with Analysis, then move to planning and strategy, then the creation of great content, the distribution of that content, then the promotion of the content through to the maintenance of the project, to keep the results we achieved and enhance it to get even better results. Isn’t that Beyond SEO?

I guess there is some SEO in each part of that but its well Beyond SEO. Creating videos and podcasts is not SEO, creating press releases and articles to suit the markets pains and desires has some SEO but far more perception is involved in learning what the market is talking about and what they are missing. Training a team of marketers to do web 2.0 pages for clients using content provided already is not SEO. Talking to my client and finding out what he really needs and wants is not SEO.

The next time in any business situation that someone asks me about what i do and makes an assumption, i have learned after last night that i need to stop them there, backtrack to the point of what i said i do and ask them to quantify what they thought i meant by that. and to ask them what that means to them.

What i am learning now is how to effectively get to understand a clients needs in order that i may be able to help them succeed. the lessons are that to properly understand your clients need is to first understand what they say they do, want, or have in the current situation really means from their perspective. 

Often what will be discovered is that our assumptions are wrong, it leads to misunderstanding and it leads to being way off the mark. If by taking the time and asking the client or partner to tell you what it means to them, what does it look like, tell me what you see then you get a clearer picture of where they are coming from.

It doesnt matter whether you are a very experienced marketer, or a rookie, you have taken the first step towards being an effective communicator being able to offer good advice and most importantly being accurate in your assessment of the situation that offers the challenge before you, and that you are supposed to be dealing with professionaly.

Its not a dig at my experienced marketing friend from yesterday, not at all, in fact,  it also is a lesson for me too as i didnt ask anything of him to find out where he was coming from and what he was looking for either. Intent can be just as valuable as experience, especially if it comes with belief, honesty and the real desire to help clients succeed.

What we offer is real, it is effective, it cant be common because i just do not see it when i look at google in the niches that i am interested in or looking at for my clients and therefore it is unique, especially to the marketplace we are in.

Marketing today is far more aggressive than ever before, my wife Diana pointed out this morning that there are so many sales jobs being advertised and the majority of them are commission based only. It’s a fiercely competitive marketplace. The  human nature characteristics are very evident too, people are trying to survive and their survival instincts and traits are very visible as i look at whats happening. I see people becoming aggressive, impatient, greedy and defensive.

The key is i believe what i have learned from industry leaders like Rich Schefren, David Meerman Scott, Mahan Khalsa and many others, the key is creating great content and value for the consumer. Creating that content regularly and being open, transparent, authentic and real to people.

Perhaps the best  example of this today is Gary Veynerchuk with his 80,000 subscribers to his wine TV show, for those that do not know him, he is a young guy talking about wine in every day language and demystifying the subject to a lot of people who are both experts and just plain enthusiaists with no real knowledge of wine.   He took out the jargon, offered great content and people really appreciate it. is is quantifiable? I belive that he took a $3 million a year business to $60 million through his online marketing, i guess thats undeniable proof that it does work.

The really cool thing about web 2.0 is that those who are dishonest, those who are greedy, those who are cheats will be found out and we can all get on with being in business where we enjoy it and where we pursue and expect transparency from everyone we deal with.

By doing a proper assessment of a clients needs, knowing what the right fit options are for their situation, by discussing what is going to get a decent return on their investment for the budget available, and by taking into account the ability to create a lifetime value or at least a repeat customer value of each lead generated, and sales made, then we can offer a return on investment that comes with guarantees.

The important thing to remeber to get there is to ask, “what does that mean to you?” whenever they tell you what they want, what they do and whenever there is a measurable point made. If we dont take the opportunity to know what that measurement is then we dont get to offer accurate advice and ultimately to help clients succeed.

Is that Beyond SEO? You bet!

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An Easy Role For Great Sales People

Business Owners and Managers Are Interested How to Dominate Their Local Market Online

I was in the bar with two friends having a pub meal, i went to order a couple of drinks from the bar as the waiter seemed a bit slow and i felt like stretching my legs anyway. Standing at the bar another guy with the same situation commented on the slow service, we got talking and within 10 minutes he is demanding my card and asking how soon i can come and talk with his area managers.

So what happened in that ten minutes?

Well, i told the truth about what i do, very briefly, and explained that due to the recession i had to reinvent myself and came up with a new business that would fit into the marketplace even in a recession and that would thrive.

He asked me 4 questions, this is approximately how the conversation went.

Him…I have started to notice you around here a lot recently, have you started working near here?
Me…I answered …yes i have started working around here, probably for only 3-4 more weeks and i will be off to another city to do the same thing.

Him … So you spend 3-4 weeks and then move on?, is it because business is bad that you have to go elsewhere or is it normal for you to move around so much
Me…Well, business is great, in fact its even better because i get to help business people during the recession to lower costs and increase sales and build lifetime value through better relationships with their existing and new clients…in fact its really great because i get to choose who to work with, we don’t take every client that shows interest. Is it something that you would want to know about?

Him…Really, that sounds incredible, what is it that you do, tell me about it!
Me…I specialize in online marketing for offline businesses. I take any type of traditional offline business, put them online, or if they are already online i improve their site, marketing and offer and i make them dominate their local marketplace for Google search and content.

I increase revenues, i build databases for them from the customers that they already have, and i drive highly targeted traffic to them, by using strategically chosen keywords and phrases, that i know are commercially motivated…its what i call money words or buying words.

The business gets to sell to these people repeatedly at a very low cost and its far more effective than yellow pages, radio ads, newspaper ads or any other form of media.

Him…That sounds really great but how much work is that for a typical business owner or manager and what are the costs?
Me…There is very little work for the business owner, i do all the work, we do for them video, article, press release, web 2.0, social bookmarking, twitter, facebook, bebo and other types on online marketing..we do it all for them. All the business owner has to do is make a decision and choose a package and watch as we dominate Google within 2-3 weeks.

As for the costs…They start from 500 for basic options, package options are from 1500, 3000, 4500 and  up to 7000 for the full package with monthly fees from 297 to 2000.

What we do is not a one off advert, or a seasonal yellow pages advert that doesn’t get noticed… What we do is there long term, it offers the choice of dominating Google first page multiple times for the keywords that we will choose, and it brings in a stream of highly targeted traffic which you can convert into  business.

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Dear Restaurant & Hotel Owner / Proprietor/ Manager/ Director (delete as appropriate)

I know that you are an incredibly busy person and have a demanding job running a restaurant, I am well aware of the time constraints that you have as I also come from a background in hospitality.

In fact I spent 17 years in total working in hospitality, initially as a Kitchen porter when I left My home in Scotland and moved to London looking for a new life after I just turned 17 years old, and I later went on to become a Commis chef and from there I worked in various places all over the world including cruise ships, 5 star hotels in Holland, Bermuda, Jersey, Bermuda and back to London again as a Chef, and then on to operations and development Chef at one of the fastest growing restaurant groups in the UK. I then went on to have a successful recruitment agency in London and then owned my own restaurant in Riga, Latvia after it became a member of the European Union.

What I have to say to you today is so important that I would like to catch your attention for just a few moments, and to share with you something that can be incredibly powerful to your business. I would like to ask you to spend a few moments to read my letter and please trust me that I would not ask you to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule unless I truly believed that it was in your best interests. I would like you to read this letter to the end.

What I will share with you will blow your mind, it will be backed up by facts and figures and every single word is written by me and not by a copywriter, and every single fact can be backed up and proved with testimonials and references, hard data and facts.

So who am I?

My name is Tony Hayes, some of you in the UK hospitality Industry might know me, some of you will never have heard of me. I have not worked in the restaurant business for a few years since my own restaurant was sold a few years back, I wish I had known then what I am about to share with you today.

Until recently, or specifically until the recession hit, I was running a very successful business providing foreign workers to businesses in Australia, Canada, UK, USA and Some other parts of the western world. Most of our workers were coming from countries like Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine etc in Eastern Europe, and also from Asia (Philippines, Thailand and India) but our Brazilian waitresses & housekeepers were particularly popular!

Obviously, with the financial crash and many lost jobs there was zero demand for our services, I was not in demand and I was forced to learn something new, very quickly and get back into the market again as fast as possible with a better business, capable of thriving under the current climate. What transpired was not a quick turnaround as I had hoped, in fact until now I have been underground and learning and testing and watching the market place evolve and at the same time working out a path that allowed an opening for me to enter with the right product or service at the right time.

I spent on average 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week for the past 7 months and by my calculations I have now acquired over 2000 hours of learning my new skills and knowledge and have come to the market pace with a unique service, specifically for the hospitality industry and it is something that in most major cities and regions is not being done by anyone else…well not to the extent that I will be doing and certainly not with the same impact that I am about to bring to the marketplace.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about total domination web 2.0 internet marketing…online marketing for offline businesses….modern marketing that has been tested, proven and offers you the power to totally own Google first pages for your marketplace ..to become THE LOCAL CELEBRITY for Google content and search.

I am talking about having multiple listings on Google front page for terms that I have been testing to be what I term as “buying” or ‘money” words. You will see In a few moments what this could mean for you personally, for your business and for your bottom line.

Lets create an example…let’s say you have an Italian restaurant in Edinburgh .Imagine that you owned Google front page for the keywords “Italian in Edinburgh” / Italian restaurant in Edinburgh / eating out in Edinburgh and Edinburgh Italian restaurant reviews…let’s say that these combined terms have a total search volume per day of 1680 unique searches on Google.

Lets imagine then that for those 4 keywords that when these 1680 searchers types into Google they found your restaurant multiple times on the first pages. Let’s just say that you were there so many times that you practically own Google first pages for those highly targeted, high volume, high commercial intent keywords….do you think that would help your business? Absolutely!

Let me show you some more numbers…imagine that we have a typical follow through rate of 5% of those searches actually find their way through to your restaurant that day, a further 5 % by the end of the week if they are tourists and a further 10% by the end of the month if they are local…can you see where I am going with this?

Now, remember earlier I said that I had been testing this…Well let’s use some facts instead of assumptions. 5% is actually a very conservative number for searches for these particular keywords, why? Well, they are highly motivated searches, they are commercial intent, the figure is actually likely to be around 15-20% at least and that’s determined by the person answering your phone when they call to get more info or to book a table!

But for the sake of those that are a little skeptical I want to show you a calculation at 5%

Now if that restaurant was earning on average £30.00 per person and that 5% came on their own with no friends (unlikely, but we will have skeptical people reading this too!)

• That would be 84 people per day, spending £30.00 = £2520.00 per day!
• That would be 588 people per week spending = £17,640.00 per week
• That would be 2352 people per month spending = £70,560.00 per month
• That would be over 28,000 people per year spending = almost £850k per year!

If I was wrong …if I over estimated by 50%…would £425k feel like a kick in the teeth?

Let me ask you a question…

How much is your current marketing budget?

Do you expect to get anywhere near that sort of result for what you are spending now?

How much do you spend on yellow pages, radio adverts, local publications etc?

Do you think this is something that you want to hear more about?

At this stage you will have some questions, but I want to dig slightly deeper, I want to show you another more common but often misused asset..This is a freebie on me as I am happy to help people see things that are not going to affect my own game plan.

I speak to restaurant owners all the time, I make it my business to do so and have done for years as it is my business to make acquaintances with them. Often they are spending a lot of money on advertising this or that and they are running radio ads and guess what…most of the people they are advertising to are their existing clients, in fact often it is the same faces that turn up at every new promotion. Now I often ask the managers and owners, do you have a mailing list for either direct mail or email? Often they have something for one or even both but they don’t use it…why? Well often they feel they don’t know how to. So let’s take a look at a client I worked with in Louisiana (I was underground for months. Remember? Hope you are still paying attention!)

So the client has a small but reasonably busy restaurant, an average spend of $75 in a quite up market area…he has regular clients and he often does not need to advertise. But we had to work with what we had right? So anyway, we set up some tests, we started to collect email addresses from clients, after a week we have around 200, after a month we have around 640 and after 3 months we have around 900…remember it’s often the same faces.

We set up promotional emails going out weekly for Wednesday night dinner promotions as it is quiet, we set up in advance promotions for upcoming holidays and events and special dates in the calendar. I won’t go into detail how and what cost etc as I will keep that as a loaded gun for my clients to benefit from, but we took a small, successful restaurant, using its own customer case over a short period of time into 6 figures extra income!

Now, usually I hear people saying at this point…why are you telling this to so many people, what if someone just takes your ideas and hires someone else to do what you are suggesting? Well it’s a fair question but the real truth is that it’s taken me and some friends that I paid to learn from…who are some of the very top people in the business several months to test and work out the how, what, why and when and if I have a client who chooses to take my advice and go after the keywords that I suggest, using my methods and letting my team do all the work for them then we know that we have enough firepower to absolutely dominate any marketplace.

The fact is that there are multiple markets in every city, there are niches and micro niches and if someone wants to go for a niche its cool, I mean that, if there is a restaurateur out there reading this and can’t afford to hire me but who will put in the effort of doing all the things needed to dominate that market then great. But if I have a client who also wants that market then unfortunately it will be extremely hard to stop us.

So at this stage I have to let you decide…

Do you want to be the local superstar on Google?

Would you not think that if you had a surge in sales from my strategies that it would cut your costs and increase your profits?

Do you think that by dominating the content searches through strategic planning that your status in the local marketplace could create a celebrity status for you as the voice of authority in your marketplace? Would that drive more sales in itself?

What about the lead capture mechanisms that we would put into place and manage for you that increased a small restaurant’s revenue by 6 figures using their own client base?

The good news is that I am able to create these things as a reality for those that want it badly enough, the bad news is that there isn’t so many cities, restaurant types and buying or money keywords to please everyone.

The real good news is that we are very affordable and we make our packages part commission based upon results that we believe we can bring to you. In fact I would be surprised if what we are asking for is more than you are wasting right now on your marketing that is often immeasurable and probably doesn’t work too well.

So, I will ask you guys who know me to get on board now, many of you know me well enough to know that when I have something it is worth listening to, and those that don’t to get one board anyway and don’t let someone else take your market!

We are rolling this out one city at a time, this is to ensure that we can quickly fill the spaces that we have for the keywords that we suggest and so that we can focus on just a few clients at a time and get to know them well, if we went national it would not be personal, it would be stretched and it would be not my style. The door is open now, if you are reading this then we are in your city and we are not going to be here for long, get on board now!

All you have to do is fill in the form, it has 10 real easy questions that will give me enough info to have my team research and give you some facts. From there it’s a decision on your part and once you are committed to our online marketing for restaurants then you will have access to me personally at least once a week and you will have my personal involvement in your marketing. / you will have the thrill of watching Google first pages being filled up with your pages for the real keywords that matter!

Is this something you would like to hear more about?

We gave some easy access exploratory and introductory packages available to let you test the water and see how well we work  to bring in the initial results agreed upon before expanding into a deeper commitment…In fact this is our preferred method as we like to prove our ability and we get to know you too along the way.

We invite you to join us on a journey to take your marketing and later your networking and even your recruitment to new places and methods that you have never seen before.

Welcome to 2009 and beyond!

Welcome to Local Hospitality Marketing & Networking

Please fill in our client enquiry form to learn more about our marketing online for restaurants and hotels services

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