Maximizing Your Businesses Blog Post Visibility with SEO

Is your blog taking a back seat to all the other online SEO campaigns your business is running? For any business, a blog should be treated the same way as your website. Increase visibility and search engine ranking with your blog posts by following these 4 simple rules that will have your posts all over the web…in no time!

This week in online social networking, Hurricane Earl seems to be the talk of the town. As of right now, it is one of the top trending topics on Twitter and it looks as if everyone is generating buzz about it all over the web.

Done believe it? Take the Northeast “Snow-Mageddon” this past winter; tips, updates and news were spread about using popular online social networks. Advice and information that was crucial to the safety of many residents along the eastern seaboard.

But, why social media? What does social media have to offer that other “media” outlets don’t?

The answer to this question is simple: because that’s where the people are!

If the social media community is now being utilized to pass monumental information, it is definitely the hottest place online and your business needs to be utilizing it!

The benefits of social media marketing, over other forms of media, are attributed to two key characteristics:

1. Real Time: The main benefit to social media is that it is displayed in real time. Tweets, status updates and messages come to your desktop much faster than a news article or a nightly news update on the TV.
2. Real People: Social media updates are generated (most of the time) by real, live people. These updates can provide you with more knowledgeable information from all different kinds of individuals in different geographic locations and of different professions.

So get online and make a contribution to the online social media community. Make your business stand out and create some long-lasting relationships that will be converted into quality contractor leads for your business.

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As more and more people use the Internet to get video when and how they want it, traditional TV viewership is slipping significantly. Take a look at this post from Business Insider about the latest numbers for new cable subscribers…the headline, “Pay TV Losses Subscribers for the first time EVER!”

Here is another post from NewStatesman that echos this trend. The headline, “Online Broadcast TV Doubles in Past Year.”

In a nutshell, you need to be where your customers are hanging out. How are you changing your business marketing practices?

Follow my path: How does a baseball GM measure the performance of his players? Batting average, runs batted in, home runs are the basics, Followed by more esoteric stats such as RISP, OBP, DICE, and GIDP. The masters of the use of statistics in measuring talent have been Epstein of the Boston Red Sox and Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees, Not coincidentally, both among the most successful GM’s. Although some may argue that you need to have an eye for talent, no one can dispute that ultimately it’s the stats that gets a player into the Hall of Fame. Likewise, an organization must be able to accurately measure the performance of its salespeople to retain the Hall of Fame salespeople and cull out the “Mendoza’s”.

In the remodeling business and particularly with regard to remodeling salespeople, we can all agree on the basic measurement statistics: sales volume, gross margin and commissions earned. But are those stats enough to understand what is happening within your sales operation? Is your top salesperson really operating at max? Is your poorest performer really that bad? Which salespeople are maximizing the return on your advertising dollars? Are they the right fit for the sales role? Am I coaching/managing them properly? Might they be better suited in another role in your business?

With any measurement system, accurately capturing data is most critical in providing reliable information. This statement goes way beyond the proverbial “garbage in, garbage out”. It is not enough to just put in “good” information; you have to be assured that you are putting in “all” relevant information, all the time. If your system does not require you to put in all relevant data, than you cannot rely on your statistics. For instance, does your information system require you to capture your client’s information? Does it check to see whether the client even existed in the first place, so you don’t end up with duplicates? Does your information system require that every lead must have a source? Every sit resulted? Every set appointment acknowledged? Track every step an employee took to sell the job?

When you can gather these data points you now can look beyond the “batting averages and home runs”. You can understand that even a high commissioned salesperson can be even more productive. You can see whether some efforts are mediocre or maybe you lowest producer may simply be challenged within selling specific jobs? Can geography play a role? Whatever it may be, when the numbers substantiate what you believe, it’s easy: YOU ATTACK THE ISSUE

Before you round the bases….

Before you choose a CRM Solution, you need to set your Goals with buy-in from all parties involved. When setting a goal, it must be….

• Discrete – Stand-alone and doesn’t depend on other factors
• Quantifiable – Can be reduced to numbers and other specifics
• Action-Based – Specific internal actions that may change and have a major impact on the outcome

Example: ”I want CRM to increase sales” is a poor goal. Saying “I want CRM to help me increase sales-dollar volume by 20 percent in the next 12 months” is quantified and discrete. The action-oriented part might be something like, “I’m going to use CRM to help me increase sales-dollar volume by 20 percent in the next 12 months by doing A, B and C.” Your goals should emphasize outcomes, not process. Increasing the number of sales calls is probably good. Increasing sales volume is much better.

Steps to take:

1. Analysis: Goals don’t exist in a bubble. Understand your current situation…where you are weak and where you are strong
2. Quantify Your Goals: Determine how you will measure your progress
3. Metrics: Understand the measurements used to track your progress

“I have learned and been educated that you can challenge your perceptions and that, if you come across some statistics that, essentially the end game is there. A number of statistics that I’ve learned through people like (Yankees director of quantitative analysis) Mike Fishman that have opened my eyes, that have led me to understand that certain players aren’t necessarily what you perceive them to be. And it’s prevented me from making acquisitions and saving me from losing a certain prospect as well as taking on money that would have been a waste that earlier in my career I would have done.” - Brian Cashman – General Manager, New York Yankees

Just ask my friend David Yoho. Your business success depends on that last mile from lead to sale. That is the in-home demo and sale.

David and his world class team put together a terrific must attend seminar called “The Science of In-Home Selling” on Wednesday, September 15th at the Home Remodeling Show in Baltimore. Every sales team needs to develop the skills and techniques that will drive your business to new highs. You don’t have to take my work for it. Check out this letter that was sent to Dave from one of his clients (click here).

This blog is focused on helping you with strategies and techniques to get more leads. But at the end of the day, your sales team needs to convert that to a sale or this is a lot of wasted time and money. If you are going to the Home Remodeling Show in Baltimore on September 15th-17th, and you should, get to Dave’s “Science of In-Home Selling” seminar.

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Key Steps and Tips for Optimizing Your Twitter Bio to Generate a Massive Following

Not only has Twitter become one of the most influential social media networks, but it has also become a major search engine for many individuals. The Twitter bio for your page is extremely important to the way in which your business markets itself within this enormous social media platform. Here are some key tips and tools to generating leads and followers in 160 characters.

Sometimes life is not as hard as we make it out to be. Following some simple, but highly effective principles for web traffic conversion will get you more contractor leads than anyone in your market. The hard part is not making this too complicated…and of course, just doing them.

SECRET #1 – Use a landing page, PLEASE

Your homepage is not the best destination for social media traffic because your message will be much broader on your homepage that you have on your social media site.

In social media, you are publishing regularly through micro blogging, article writing and videos on specific topics. You should have landing pages within your site structure that you can drive this very targeted traffic to that will be and exact match to the social media subject your viewer/prospect is reading.

Think of it this way. If you are on a social media site learning about energy efficiency and how windows can help make your home more energy efficient, how would you feel if you clicked on a link and were dumped on a page that talked very broadly about window replacement and tried to sell you a deal or request a quote?

SECRET #2 – Match your Social Media Message to your Landing Page

The primary message on your landing page should be the same (or reflective of) what you said in your social media channel. Like positive reinforcement for dogs, seeing a familiar message adds to the feeling that you made a “good” click. Conversely, not having a matched message can make your visitors feel lost – at which point they head for the comfort of the back button.

SECRET #3 – Social proof via social media widgets

There is a new buzzword in the social media marketing world…wisdom of the crowd. This is based on the fact that most people are a bit like sheep. They have no idea where they are going, and in most cases, just wander around until they find something interesting. Our herd mentality makes us want constant validation that our choices are sound. We do this by seeking reviews of products and services and we observe the reactions of others as they experience the goods before us. The great thing is, with social media, we can make this concept work for us.

SECRET #4 – Make it easy to share with social media widgets

Having viewers of your social media content be able to easily share and spread your ideas will benefit your business in several ways. Sharing your content can come across as a “referral” to someone looking for a contracting service like yours. The cool thing about viral sharing is that it will also add to your “authority” as and expert. Great way to differentiate your business from the pack!

You can find tons of social media sharing widgets that make it easy to integrate sharing capabilities into your website, Facebook Fan Page and other social media/web 2.0 sites.

SECRET #5 – Keep Your Lead Gen Form Short

Traffic conversion to a qualified lead is a dynamic tension between enticement and resistance (barriers to entry). If you are collecting leads (personal data such as name, email, phone number, company, website etc.) then your lead gen form is a barrier to entry and the size of the barrier is directly correlated to the size of the form (number of fields).

When collecting personal data, you need to offer something back to the customer in exchange, such as a whitepaper, webinar registration, eBook and so on. The more relevant and interesting your giveaway is, the larger you can make the hurdle. Another important aspect here it to make your offer something that will only engage people truly interested in your service. Offering a discounted cruise if someone gives their contact info and sets up a sales call may get you lots of leads, but you might be attracting a very unqualified lead. Better, offer something that only someone who would want to buy your product or service would want.

SECRET #6 – Have Multiple Calls To Action

Sadly, not everyone that comes to your landing page is ready to convert “right now”. They may be more upper funnel, trying to get educated, window-shopping, browsing or just curious about what you have to say. By offering several calls to action (we recommend at least 3 per landing page) you can sometimes persuade the visitor to maintain a connection with you wherever they may be in the purchase decision.

The simplest ways to do this are to provide a method to:

• A visible phone number to call for immediate help.
• Download a free handbook/ebook
• Request a quote button

Other simple ways to get the contact using social media are:

• Like your Facebook page or group
• Follow you on Twitter
• Join a LinkedIn group
• Bookmark you on Delicious

SECRET #7 – Post-Conversion Sales

Post-conversion sales strategy is a completely overlooked part of the sales funnel. You got your conversion and you got your lead so everything’s good right? Wrong. You need a sale!

There are several ways we use to optimize your post-conversion opportunities:

• Use an autorepsonder to move your new lead to a sale. Use social proof (testimonials) and education materials to build trust and authority in your sales process.
• Follow up with a call immediately to arrange an in-home demo. Make sure you have a script and your people know it and keep track of demo set up rates so you can optimize that script.
• Place additional call-to-actions on your confirmation or thank you page (after they complete your lead gen form). This can help to reduce clutter on your landing page. And you can also suggest a page on your website as their next step – knowing that they have a qualified level of interest.
• Turn the email into a complete social profile using a service like Flowtown. This gives your leads an identity and sets you up for more targeted follow-up marketing. Your first contact with the prospect is critical, and the more you know about them the better. By connecting based on real profile data you look like someone who’s made the effort to do some research before making contact. This is a massive conversion advantage.

In Summary

Don’t get overwhelmed by the possibilities. Bookmark this post and do one thing at a time and come back and continue till you have implemented everything.

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How to Create Lasting Wealth with Your Own Lead Platform

Learn about coordinated strategies, structure, how to have branded landing pages, keyword searches and social media integration! Giving your website SEO “juice” using the right anchor text and ongoing locally focused SEO.

All of these components combined with Chris’ attention to successful contractor leads generation is a recipe for excellence! Take your business to the next level today!