Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a very mysterious and confusing marketing tool for many small business owners and managers. Based on conversations I have had with colleagues and business owners, there seems to be a disconnect between the perceived need to implement SEO and an understanding of why SEO may be important & exactly what is involved in the process…”I’m not sure what SEO is and what the benefits are…but I think I need it”. Why should your small business embrace SEO? What are some of the benefits? What are some of the pitfalls to look out for?

Most consumers use search engines i.e. Google to find what they are looking for on the internet. If lead generation is one of your website objectives, then it will be important for your site to come up near the top of those search results
(preferably on the first page). Here are a couple of interesting statistics regarding online search and the importance of page ranking:

• 74% of consumers use search engines to research local businesses, products and services
• 69% of consumers will click on a website link on the 1^st page of their search results
• Only 10% of consumers will view past the 3^rd page of a search result

Basically, 7 out of 10 consumers won’t go to the second page of their search results. “If your website relies on customers finding you when they’re ready to consider your product or service, then SEO is an absolute must for you – and it can generate long-term rewards,” says Rudy Lopes, Vice President of The Smartacus Corporation (http://www.iamsmartacus.com/). “One of our websites, college-cram.com, provides help to students looking to
study; advertising to them when they’re not studying is a waste of resources. Showing up on the first page of Google when they look for help is what keeps our numbers so high.”

Drew McKenzie, Brand Leader for Creative Department (http://www.creativedepartment.com/), has experienced the benefits of SEO. “Results have indicated we are getting 5-10 new web generated leads per week, whereas before we received none. In general, via SEO, we have claimed our rightful spot in Google, where, in the past, we did not have a presence. It is resulting in a significant advantage over companies who have not optimized their sites. In my opinion, SEO is mandatory and not optional.”

The primary benefit of a good SEO strategy should be improved page rankings for your small business website. It seems simple enough…implement SEO and watch your website move up the search engine rankings. But there are some other factors that need to be taken into consideration. “The main benefits to using SEO are improved ranking against search queries and ability to extend the exposure of your site” says Nick Dimitrakiou, Partner of the media practice at Kinesis Marketing (http://www.kinesismarketing.com/index.aspx), “Yes, your results will improve, but you need to be very focused on identifying which keywords are most important to your business, and optimize the site based on those key phrases. Generally, you can expect to see results after a couple of months, but be patient as it is a slow build.”

It’s important to manage your expectations with respect to the results of your SEO initiatives – Going in to your SEO project with a long term view as opposed to a quick fix is your safest bet. In some cases, results may present themselves sooner than later. On a recent project, the local SEO that I work with (www.geton.com) suggested that a reasonable waiting period prior to seeing tangible results was 6-9 months. As it turns out, we ended up getting some great results within 3 months. It can really depend on the depth and breadth of the SEO initiative that is required. After
an extensive SEO effort, Shannon Kavanaugh, President of Go-To-Market Strategies (http://www.gtms-inc.com/),
saw results within weeks. She is also careful to point out that maintaining positioning required an ongoing effort, “It’s much more time consuming than one might think – You have to keep up on it constantly. Also, the SEO rules change
all the time, but all the effort is definitely worth it.”

Finally, your small business also needs to be aware of some of the SEO pitfalls and what to look for if you’re hiring a SEO consultant. Lopes from Smartacus commented on the fact that a lot of companies do little bits of the process and blanket their service as SEO. “The trick for owners that want SEO for their sites is to make sure that their potential SEO vendor has previously demonstrated success, and in a proper white-hat way – Just like the old cowboy movies, white hats indicate the good guys; black hat techniques are frowned upon by the search engines and can get you penalized or even kicked out off a results page.”

If properly researched, implemented and managed, SEO can provide a real competitive advantage for your small business – but there are pitfalls to avoid. A final word of advice from Nick Dimitrakiou at Kinesis Marketing…”Never go with a provider who claims they will guarantee you positioning!”

Other SEO Resources:

• Article: An SEO Glossary – Common SEO Terms Defined
• Article: The Basics of SEO – Some FAQ’s
• Tips from Google on what to look for when hiring an SEO Consultant
• SEO Checklist (free download): http://www.gtms-inc.com/store-templates.htm
  

As a small business leader, one of the most important things you can do is develop a mechanism to include all employees in the vision of your organization. Some of the benefits of a shared company vision include:

• Employee satisfaction
• Increased productivity
• Unity
• Dedication
• Loyalty
• Organizational pride
• Faster and more disciplined decision making

Kouzes and Posner, authors of the Leadership Challenge, state that “leadership is a dialogue not a monologue”. So how do you start the dialogue about company vision with your employees? The first step is to make the commitment to schedule that first meeting. If possible, the session should include every employee in your company and be organized to encourage participation, open discussion and the sharing of ideas.

I have had the opportunity to facilitate a few of these types of meetings and have witnessed how effective they can be. The company I work with sets up “strategy sessions” every six months. The goals of these meetings are to:

• facilitate the exchange of ideas
• offer all employees an opportunity to participate in shaping the vision of the organization
• provide an opportunity for the company to communicate vision, objectives, strategies, etc to their whole team

The first session focused on the marketing of the company’s products and services. Through various small and large group activities, brainstorming, white-boarding, etc., the company harvested a number of great ideas from the group (18 employees). Some of the concepts flushed out during the marketing session found there way into the annual strategic plan.

The next session addressed strategic planning. During this meeting everyone received a copy of the annual business plan. This was a great shared vision strategy – employees saw that there ideas from the previous meeting were being used in the plan and they also had the opportunity to learn about, discuss and question the strategic direction of the organization.

In this particular case, the management group of the company established the final strategic plan. The process of including all employees in strategic discussions and offering the opportunity for honest dialogue and shared thought helped create a “shared vision” scenario – and a fertile environment that has positioned the company for future growth and success.

By Mark Smiciklas

What can your small business do to help build a positive culture and create a workplace that attracts and retains employees?  Here are a few cool ideas from a company I work with…

• Health Days – in addition to regular time off, employees get 3 extra paid days off to unwind. Half of the staff takes a Friday and the other half a Monday – that way the office stays open and there is no service interruption
• Volunteer Days – 1 paid day per quarter per employee to volunteer at a non-profit of their choice
• Employees that want to commute (and help the company reach their 15% annual GHG emission reduction goal) receive a complimentary transit pass every month
• Paid fitness centre membership
• Organic food delivery to the office
• Subsidized (50%) organic home food delivery for each employee
• Flex hours and a casual work environment
• Social Fridays – the office shuts down an hour early; employees hang out and play foozball; Sony Wii; etc.

In a competitive labour market where employees have a lot of choice, your small business needs to excel in the "culture" department. As demographics change and the baby boomers exit the job market, Gen X’ers and the new Facebook Generation are demanding more from their work environments. If your small business embraces work/life balance as part of your culture, you will have a better chance of attracting and retaining great employees.

Electronic newsletters are a great way to build relationships with potential/existing customers. Here is a summary of some eNewsletter components and some suggestions on how to get started:

Content

Develop your content offering. The most important thing to consider is what value your eNewsletter brings to subscribers. Offer information that will help your subscribers become more knowledgeable, enabling them to use your content to run their businesses more effectively. Avoid using your eNewsletter to overtly sell your product or service – it won’t take long for subscribers to figure out whether or not your eNewsletter is really a glorified brochure.

Once you have established the theme of your eNewsletter it’s time to think about the process of creating content. Start slow with respect to newsletter frequency – publishing one issue every two months is a good way to avoid getting overwhelmed with respect to content development.

It’s great if you are able to write your own content – but this can be difficult for many people, particularly from a time perspective. Think about gaining permission to use other people’s content (making sure you properly reference their material, of course). There is no shortage of good online contributors that would be more than happy to have their thoughts published in your newsletter. Don’t be tempted to “borrow” other people’s  ideas – I always ask for permission to use content and have never be declined. Try using the following email request letter…it should help you start gaining permission and building your content library:

“We would like to request permission to use content from your (article, website, press release, etc) in some of our upcoming online newsletters. We will list the source information within the newsletter and provide a link back to the original article on our website.

About Us

(Your Company Name) is a public/private company that provides (list your product or service offering) to the (list your industry). Our eNewsletter provides concise industry centric content that is aimed at helping (your target market) manage and market their business. For more information please visit our website at (your website address).

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.”

Unfortunately, online plagiarism and content theft are a common occurance – my experience is that writers are so surprised that you are actually asking for permission, that they will be more than happy to grant it.

Email Management

Sign up with a web based email marketing service provider. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to get a quick and professional start. There are a number of email marketing programs to choose from – many of them offer similar features such as email templates, subscription list management, CAN SPAM compliance, double opt-in, opt-out, forward to a friend, email bounce back management, email metrics, etc. I have worked quite extensively with iContact and find it provides great functionality at a reasonable cost.

The first thing you will need to do after signing up is design a subscription form – basically, a field for your website where people can sign up to receive your eNewsletter. The iContact application walks you through this process and provides you with the HTML code to paste into your website – if you are not comfortable with adding this code to your site, consult your web programmer for help.

Newsletter Design and Strategy

The next step is to design your newsletter and consider a strategy for driving traffic back to your website. Don’t get over ambitious with respect to article quantity – I suggest three articles per issue in the main body of the newsletter. You can “sprinkle” some product/service/company content in the sidebars – remember, the content that provides value to your subscribers should take centre stage, but it doesn’t hurt to have some relevant company information in the background.

Consider just including the introductory paragraph to your article within the actual newsletter and providing a FULL ARTICLE link back to your website (where the complete article is posted). This serves two purposes – it helps create new website content on an ongoing basis and it draws people back to your site. After they read that great article you have provided, they might just take a tour around the rest of your website.

One last thought on eNewsletters – it takes time to cultivate a permission based list of subscribers. Be patient – it’s not the number of subscribers that’s important, it’s the quality.

I’ve been on the receiving end of numerous toxic emails and have witnessed, first hand, the effects of toxic communication – low morale, dysfunctional culture, indifference and low productivity.

In my experience, toxic emails were primarily used to incite some sort of action – a kind of motivational tool that was usually implemented by passive aggressive managers or owners.

I have to (begrudgingly) acknowledge that this form of corporate bullying does work in the short term. Workplace survival instincts will cause employees to react to
this type of motivation, performing to avoid further abuse. The end result is that those toxic emails yield their
intended results – but for how long and at what cost?

Toxic communication signals a fundamental lack of respect for the people working within an organization. This inevitably leads to turnover, or even worse, for those employees
that cannot leave, total apathy towards anything to do with an organization.

Related Resource

Check out Bad Language, a blog by Mathew Stibbe. His Ten Laws for Better Email is a very practical guide to email communication.

We’ve all heard the expression “getting the monkey off your back”. In a management context, the “monkey” is a metaphor for issues/projects that small business managers or owners take off the backs of their employees and place on their own.

What are the effects of taking on everybody else’s responsibilities? First, you spend less time managing your operations and developing strategies to grow your business. Secondly, you eliminate the opportunity for your employees to learn, slowing down their professional development.

Try taking a step back and letting your team do what they were hired to do – it will give you the time you need to manage growth and help your employees develop ownership of the issues that are important to your small business.

There is no shortage of factors to consider when it comes to the development and ongoing management of your small business website. For the purpose of this post, I want to share my thoughts on two topics:

1. Calls to Action
2. Design vs. Function

Calls to Action

A “call to action” is any activity on your website that requests your customer’s and/or prospect’s participation or commitment. This could be registering for a newsletter, filling out a form, making a purchase, sending an email, etc.

Calls to action are really important because they provide the opportunity for your website visitors to begin engaging with your brand – this is the first stage of the relationship building process between your small business and potential clients. Some call to action principles:

Icons - make sure that any call to action buttons, links, etc. stand out on the page.

Exposure – do your best to make as many of your calls to action accessible on multiple pages. For example, have a newsletter sign up button visible on all of your sub pages, not just the home page.

Value – it’s critical to provide something of value to your website visitors. Why would a potential customer give you a permission asset i.e. name, email address, phone number without receiving something of value in return? A good example is newsletters – I have seen so many websites that just have a newsletter signup box…”sign up for our newsletter”. No mention of the content and why it might be of value to the person signing up – make sure to clearly state what the newsletter is about and the benefits to signing up.

Form Length – when you are offering a demo, no obligation quote, whitepaper, e-book, etc., try to limit the number of information fields that are required to be filled in by the consumer. You don’t need to strike gold on your first attempt at mining data. Any form with more that 5 or 6 fields will have a low conversion rate. Whenever possible, start slow and ask for limited information – email address only works best. As long as you continue to offer value in future (permission based) communication, you will continue to have the opportunity to build a relationship with prospects and obtain more information over time.

Design vs. Function

Disclaimer: I am a big “design guy” – I appreciate great design, whether it’s graphic or structural, and understand the benefits of aesthetics. Okay, now that I have explained myself to all of the designers I know (and work with), I really need to rant a bit about website design.

In many cases websites designed purely on aesthetics are not very effective. Those flash sites look awesome, but aren’t as easy to navigate or as SEO (search engine optimization) friendly as “static” sites. I sat in on a Marketing Sherpa webinar last week – they made some interesting observations regarding online design practices when it comes to type fonts. Here’s a couple of excerpts:

“The average person over 40 won’t have an easy time (reading Verdana 10pt fonts) in the real world. Yet it’s still one of the most popular font/size combinations online”

“Oh and by the way, if your type is colored anything but black (and blue for hotlinks) people will have a harder time reading it.”

Just like anything – your website should be all about balance…a good mix of common sense, strategy and design.

Recently, I facilitated a marketing strategy session for a small software company where one of the key topics we brainstormed was touch points. The group came up with some great concepts that I thought might be helpful to your small business.

What is a touch point? A good definition from Sarah White (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Marketing):

“Touch points are the moments an individual has a personal interaction with someone or something representing your business. When someone stops by your trade show booth, that’s a touch point. When someone dials your phone number and reaches an automated voice response system, that’s one too.A touch point is an opportunity to either delight or disappoint an individual.”

A few important things to remember about touch points:

• A touch point interaction creates an experience for your customers
• Those experiences become the ingredients in the development of your small business brand
• The goal is to create a consistent (positive) experience across all touch points

Over the next few months I will be posting a series of ideas on touch points -
listing different ways to communicate with your customers, touch point
strategies, etc. Please stay tuned!