searchengineman

I can’t count how many times I get hit over the head by aggressive sales websites, spouting nonsense. It makes you think that anything for sale online is crap or immediately suspect. I’m not talking about the usual offenders of pop-ups,
popunders and spam masters.

As a consumer I’m usually gone in less than 2 seconds, if they piss me off. Nobody tolerates a jerk in the sales department or online! (The average time on a web landing page is less than 6 seconds.)

Truth be told I hate aggressive sales, I’d rather be caught naked in a dream.
Websites that wear colourful tropical shirts or look like a used car lots are instantly terminated, or worse are so antiseptic (boring), with blah blah yada yada jargon, I fall asleep.

In case you haven’t noticed its been a difficult year. I’m willing to place bets its not business as usual for your industry (Except Internet marketing +20% growth for next 5 years). With layoffs, downsizing, staycations. Smart savy online marketers are addressing those realities now.

Most of the really stupid ones are out of business.

As for wallets, it’s true in good times even more true, in the tough times. Consumers and your clients hold onto money tighter.

In Canada, Canadians are perceived to be conservative spenders. They are also timid and tend to wait on the side lines, with a wait and see attitude (We sit on the fence). I hope this is not your marketing plan for your business!

A tough market means that those Canadian businesses who didn’t sit, are in much better shape. The competition has been culled they’re not coming back. If you’re still selling to Canadian customers, you must leverage your experience and know how into your website.

What should I be doing for my website now?

Make a Kick-Ass Blog, Brand your site around it – Become Gary “The Guy”.

Money is attracted to Confidence.

Blogging is not tropical shirts, Blogging is not mindless jargon, Blogging is not my dream about the queen or the one about me being naked in front of an audience. Blogging is certainly not about copying and pasting a newsfeed. Your blog must be personalized about the issues that are important for your customers to know.

Marketing is finding out what the customer wants, and finding the best and fastest way to give it to them. You must do this better than the competition.

If you don’t know what to write about, maybe its time to find a better business model!. (The official going rate for a really good pro-copywriter per article is $400US/article, without SEO.)

An educated consumer will ask why should I buy anything from you online?

Because you are an expert in what you do! (Aren’t you?) The best proof is to blog about it. Write about what you do for a living, real stuff, real information. Personal stories around your industry, even the failures and what you learnt from them. The more content rich the more authentic, the better.

Testimonials work up to a point. But consumers want meat to sink there teeth into and make an informed choice. We can only take so much, what a great guy you are.

Become Gary “The Guy” with your Blog.

Your website’s mission is to become “The Guy” the one who has all the answers. If I need to know about widgets, I call Gary. Gary is “The Guy” who knows everything about widgets. Branding is about making your website “That Guy” using your blog online as an engine, not a dry FAQ encyclopedia of questions and answers. I can go to Wikipedia if I need a FAQ.

There are no more secrets online anymore (after you sift thru the spam.). If you don’t blog about it your competition will. Because when your clients learn the truth they’ll come back to you online. Because if you were honest, those clients will come screaming back to you because you warned them first about the sharks in the water!

But I don’t have time to commit to a Blog!

The problem is Gary the widget guy has a business to run, his time is valuable. Gary would rather concentrate on growing his business, instead of talking about it for hours on the phone with no sales. You need to put those conversations online where they belong, so you can do other stuff, instead of having the same conversation over and over again.

The time you spend now, is the time you will not have to spend in the future.

Can you afford not do a Kick-Ass Blog!

By doing this work, Gary’s Blog will grow to becomes an honest trusted authority. It is not unusual for company and corporate Blogs to have multiple contributors.

Ultimately who will the consumer open his wallet to? Gary or some stranger with a mediocre cookie cutter webpage circa 1995.

If you build it online they will come (Not exactly)

Know who’s coming to your site Google Analytics or Server Side Analytics. You must have a regular traffic stream of visitors to your site PPC & SEO. Kick-Ass Blogging means understanding that someone who visits may not purchase anything the first time, but they’re going to leave your site educated, so educated they’ll tell there friends about it via Social Media & Word of Mouth.

Do you have a blog that doesn’t bore me to tears, or wears a tropical shirt. Money runs from desperation, but is attracted to confidence. Don’t be the that guy that comes back screaming, because there are sharks out there. And I told you so.

Searchengineman.